Last year, my wife and I took our granddaughters to the movie, “Frozen.” They loved it! Grandpa and Grandma enjoyed it too, but we also enjoyed watching the girls’ faces and reactions as the story unfolded on the screen. Our granddaughters still love it. They have seen it over and over again on dvd. During every visit with them since then at some point we hear their rendition of the song, “Let It Go.”
The movie was inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, “The Snow Queen.” It’s the story of a fearless princess who sets out on a journey to find her estranged sister whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in eternal winter. It is the highest grossing animated movie of all time, grossing over $1.2 billion worldwide; $400 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Throughout the movie there is an underlying theme of love and redemption. Love is presented as something that comes with a great personal cost. Olaf, the little comic relief snowman delivers a poignant and wise view of love when he says, “It’s putting the needs of somebody else above your own.” That is played out as Anna sacrifices herself to save her sister Elsa in the climax of the film. Elsa had ignored Anna for most of her life. But the lesson is that true love does not depend on how others treat us.
That’s a great lesson, but there is more to it than two sisters being reunited to live happily ever after in a kingdom where the eternal winter has been broken. In fact, Paul shows us in Romans 5:8 the real example of a love that puts the needs of others first. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus’ love is not based on what others do for him, but his love is personified through personal sacrifice. He put our needs ahead of his own when he went to the cross to pay the debt due for our sin. This is agape love; sacrificial, unearned, unconditional love.
That’s the type of love that we are to show others; our child’s teacher, our boss, our co-workers, neighbors, family, and friends; or the clerk who rings up our groceries, the mechanic, the waiter or waitress at the restaurant. Sometimes when we cross paths with these and others their hearts are frozen. They are focused only on themselves, their issues and needs. But Jesus’ example of agape love shows us that’s when we need to put our needs before theirs and show them his love through a smile, a kind word, or some other act of love that shows them a glimpse of him. Sometimes it’s those acts that melt a person’s heart so that they can see fully the love that God has for them.
Jesus made the first move to show us his love when he died on the cross for us. Let’s make the first move by putting our needs aside to focus on the needs of others first so that the love of God is seen in us.
by Keith Dimbath, Lifeline’s Work Team Director
Praises
