Lion King
My parents have been visiting us - their first time in England - what a pleasure to show them the sights, sounds, tastes of England. Yesterday we took them to the Lyceum theater for the Lion King performance. I’m not particularly fond of theater, but I have to admit - this one I enjoyed.
The story has such a beautiful theme of lost & found identity …. in particular as it relates to one’s relationship with one’s father. The point at which Simba re-discovers his identity was so moving. The monkey asks him (Simba) to look into the water. He pulls away and says: “that’s just my own reflection”. She (I think its a she) says: “No, look deeper”. Simba looks again - longer and deeper. Suddenly, he recognises his father, his origin in his own reflection. The words of the song are:
He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you
Wow - for such truths I’ll sit through a three hour theater performance again!
It reminded me firstly of James where he said: “Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts—this person will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:24&25
Can you see how the word reveals the face of our origin … and then encourages us to live out our true identity. A while ago I translated verse 25 as follows:
Look and continue to look,
the perfect, complete, and eternal freedom.
Listen; listen intensely;
listen in such a way that you are able to express it as a poet; able to perform it like an actor…
then act; act in the full conviction of what you have seen and heard,
and you will find delight and affirmation in your action.
Another passage that sprang to mind was Psalm 23:
He leads me beside still water (water in which I can see my reflection … and recognise more than just myself)
He restores my soul. ( Restore means to bring back to the original )
So like the monkey in the Lion King, I want to encourage all of you to look again; to look longer and deeper into the still water. At first it might simply look like your own reflection, but keep on looking until you behold Him in this mirror. Discover Him in yourself and discover yourself in Him afresh. He is the truth about your identity - not your career; not your achievements; not your disappointments; not even a criminal record can make the faintest mark on the image of you that God preserved within this eternal realm - the still waters that reveals your original image and likeness.
Monkey see monkey do
The simplicity of the gospel becomes a reality in the mirror… You don’t get any simpler than what you’ve described above - look and see for yourself! Beautiful!