Notes From Watching Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my all time favorite movies. As a kid, I loved the dresses, the rose, the music and Mrs. Potts. Now that I’m older, I love… well… it all!

This past week, I talked my brothers into letting me watch it. So, we all walked to the workout room and plugged it into the VHS player (Yes, my Disney movies are on VHS tapes.) and curled up not on the couches but on the treadmill and on my dad’s big desk chair. Then the magic began. (That sounded a lot like an announcer or something.)

Although I love that movie, three things seemed to stick out than normal. Things that I had totally blown off before now became relevant and made me think, so, I think I’ll share them with you.

1)The beast was put under the spell when he was eleven years old. Eleven. The bible says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train children to live the right way, and when they are old, they will not stray from it.” Not that I’m a parent or anything, but my parents have worked hard with me on memorizing bible verses and cleaning my room. And now that I’m old (Like, 15. DUDE!) It is a habit for me to clean my room. (To a degree.)  When the Beast was young, he was taught that he could have whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and that lead him to shun the old lady at his door. Simply because he didn’t want to. Your life can be ruined by your choices at a young age. So make sure that your choices are good ones.

2)Beauty could have it all. She could have gotten married to Gaston and lived happily ever after. Except for this. She had higher standards for who she was going to marry. It didn’t matter how he looked anything, she wanted someone who loved her-not because she was the only girl in the village who didn’t dote over Gaston. She knew that she was worth more than that and wanted to show it. Beauty (Or Belle as her real name was) treated herself like a treasure. She knew who she was and acted accordingly. (Now, I did notice that Beauty married the beast, who at one point was just as conceded-perhaps even more so. I think the difference is that the Beast stopped being so conceded and also that he loved her for more than that she was “hard to get.”)

3)In most fairy tales, the ‘norm’ is for it to be “Love at first sight,” then a long tragic middle then they all live (Say it with me) “Happily ever after.” (*sigh*) but part of me thinks that after the transformation, there is more that has to happen in their lives. And the same thing happens in our lives. (Ok, I am about to take your tickets for the thought train, so you might want to take, like three deep breaths.)

When we first turn to Jesus, we are like the beast. Part of our castle is trashed, (Like the west wing in Beauty and the Beast.) Only with Jesus, we need to realize that our whole castle is trashed. All the things that we have done wrong and all the mistakes that we have made have ruined our castle. Literally, by our selves, the castle is condemned, but our own heads make it look like an exquisite gem. We can’t see that it is a war zone.  But then when Jesus comes into your “castle” he looks around and says, “Wow, This place is a mess! I need to clean this place up!” it is really hard to give him the keys. You might say, “Well, Jesus, um… I know that you live here in my castle, but that’s about all. You can’t fix anything.” And with that, you go on living your own life. Jesus still lives in you castle, but you really don’t want to give him the permission to fix it. 

But if you would only let him have the keys to your castle!

Then just think of all the things that he could fix! Jesus would take all the mess from it. Just think about how much easier it would be to walk then! But, the stubbornness of your own mind is not letting you.

Giving Jesus your castle keys is the hardest thing that you’ll ever do. I know there are many (many, many) times when I look at Jesus and my castle and I say, “Dude, I think I can handle the clean-up from here,” and I take my keys back. Then, I hit a snag, and then have to give him back the keys. Jesus needs to be more than just a handy man. We need to trust Jesus enough to not only let him live in your castle but to sit in the thrown of your castle.

(Told ya’ that this would be a thought train.)

I’ll close with this. In the book of John 16:33 Jesus says this:

                "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

                Jesus is the only one who can overcome the world. He is the only one who can overcome all the mess in your castle. He is the only one who can look at your castle and see the mess, and make it beautiful.

Rachel Joy: Editor in Chief of “Notes from my Corner of Creation.”