I can only imagine what it’s like to go watch a movie as a family if you have boys. It probably involves action, adventure, swords and super heroes. But God has given me three lovely little ladies (pictured here), which means that when we go to the theater as a family, my experience is … well … different.
It contains less action and more drama; fewer swords and more pixie dust. The “action” in the “live action” version of Cinderella that we watched last week simply meant that the movie contained real actors & actresses, rather than the original animation. To be honest, while I was genuinely excited about spending time with Meredith and my girls, I was genuinely un-excited about the movie choice. After all, I already knew the plot line and anticipated having to de-tox my girls afterwards of the typical “believe in yourself, follow your dreams, and find ultimate happiness in a soul-mate” Disney drivel.
God’s Greater Story
To my surprise, I experienced the Cinderella story in a profoundly new way that day. Perhaps it was the “live action,” but I think that it had more to do with me than the movie. I simply heard the story differently that evening because my wife, Meredith, and I were fresh on the heels of participating in a Gospel Primer Pilot Group in which we actively practiced “gospel listening”. So as I sat in a darkened theatre with my girls watching the familiar fairy tale, I somehow looked past the glass slippers and the fairy godmother’s “bippity boppity boo,” and heard the echoes of a Greater Story. Instead of rolling my eyes at the typical “Disney drivel,” I opened them to see a distant, albeit tarnished, reflection of the gospel in the familiar tale.
CREATION
Things start out happily for Cinderella as the daughter of two loving and noble parents.
FALL
All is right and well in her world, but go terribly wrong when her mother dies, followed by her father, and she becomes enslaved by an evil stepmother.
REDEMPTION
Hope seems lost until she encounters a young prince while riding her horse in the forest. Her fairy godmother magically enables her to attend a ball designed to help the prince find his bride and the two fall in love.
RE-CREATION
Unfortunately the magic wears off, Cinderella flees, and her stepmother locks her in the attic to keep her from being discovering by a royal search party. Will the stepmother succeed in hiding Cinderella? Will the prince show up to rescue her? [SPOILER ALERT: The audience actually clapped and cheered audibly when the young prince shows up just in the nick of time, foils the sinister plans of the wicked stepmother, rights injustice and rescues Cinderella. The movie ends with a “happily ever after” royal wedding.]
There it was: creation, fall, redemption, and re-creation in shadow form. Why didn’t I see this before? I called an “Irving family huddle” while the credits rolled and asked my girls, “did you notice how the audience cheered when the prince showed up to rescue Cinderella?” I continued, “That’s because God has put deep inside everybody’s heart a longing for good to win, evil to be destroyed, and a happily-ever-after ending. This was just a fairy tale, but we know a true story where a real Prince has come to rescue us from sin and will come again to rescue us from evil forever!”
Gospel Fluency
I am by no means a perfect dad, and I’m sure that I miss more opportunities than I take advantage of to speak the gospel to my children, but I am thankful that I’m slowly becoming more fluent with it. Would you like to increase your “gospel fluency” and understand how it can be applied in the everyday rhythms of life and relationships? Read some recent thoughts on a Gospel Primer group here, and let me or Brian Petak know if you’d be interested in joining one!
Mark Irving
photo credit: jamjar, “Cinderella”
photo license: creative commons 2.0
