Kia and I recently attended a marriage night at our church. Part of the evening was 30 minutes of “speed couple dating”. We had a list of questions for one couple to ask one another. They were typical get-to-know-you questions: Where is your favorite vacation spot? If you could have only one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
One of the questions stumped me: What is your favorite Disney movie?
Disney Through the Ages
I like Disney movies. I’ve seen most of them. However, I was stuck on the more recent princess movies. I couldn’t quickly process a catalog going back 100 years. I don’t remember what my answer was…maybe Lion King. It was another response that set my mind on the larger catalog of options.
The answer was, “Robin Hood…the one with the fox.”
You might remember that animated movie from the 1960’s. It was favorite my Disney movie from my childhood. I enjoyed it so much, my mom rented a VHS player for my 10th or 11th birthday – a big deal – and Robin Hood was my movie of choice.
Nothing New: Disney + Scripture
The response reminded me of Robin Hood, but it opened up the whole catalog of Disney movies to me. One of those came back to me just a few days ago.
I read a passage from the book of Judges about Israel being dominated by an enemy – the Midianites. As I read, all I could think of was this one specific Disney (Pixar) movie. See if you can guess it based on this passage:
“The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.” -Judges 6:1-6 NLT
The Israelites plant crops, raise livestock, gather wealth, but Midianite raiders swoop in to destroy or steal all of it. Israel is near ruin, so they cry out for a salvation.
Do you see it?
Pixar’s second movie, made right after the original Toy Story film, was based on an Aesop fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. Do you know it now?
A Bug’s Life.
A Bug’s Life is a story about a colony of ants dominated by a cruel pack of grasshoppers. The ants gather food for themselves and the grasshoppers only to see it all washed away. Their best option is to look for help from a band of unlikely heroes – circus bugs. If you read on in Judges, you’ll see the hero of this story is also atypical — Gideon, a young man found hiding at the bottom of a winepress.
My point in all of this is not A Bug’s Life, Robin Hood, Disney or Pixar. It’s God’s Word is original. The stories and themes of books we read and movies we watch can be found in scripture. In the Bible you can read about romance and war, heartbreak and victory, kingdoms built and nations destroyed.
Nothing New
Solomon famously wrote in Eccesiates, “there is nothing new under the sun.” A teacher from my (Christian) junior high tried to argue this meant NOTHING was new – electric cars, refrigerators, rockets to the moon, etc. I don’t think that’s what Solomon meant. I think he meant, there isn’t a story new to the world. There isn’t an emotion new to us. There isn’t a situation that the world hasn’t seen before.
So as you read scripture, let your mind wander. Where else have you seen that story, theme or idea? You may have thought it was original from a book, movie, blog or person, but was it?
God is the author and finisher of all of creation. There is nothing new for him. There is nothing new under the sun.
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