by Mary Scifres
Belle never stops moving forward. At every stage of her journey, Belle dreams of exploring new frontiers and pushes through the boundaries that would keep her small. This is the heart of the Jesus-journey: To embrace the fullness of life and to keep moving forward on our path toward transformation—a transformation that brings light and love to every life we touch.
The Adventure Is Just Beginning
The journey toward transformation is an adventure—a road calling us to embrace love and life at ever-deeper levels. As we expand our open-minded perspectives and hope-filled perceptions, the journey forward becomes clearer and more defined. As we embrace this journey with heartfelt gratitude and self-giving love, the life and love within us swell near to bursting. Just as Belle’s beautiful spirit reveals the beautiful spirit of a prince trapped in a beast’s body, so too our beautiful spirits can reveal the beautiful spirits of others, and vice-versa. Supportive communities help us on our journeys toward transformation, blessing us with insight, encouragement, and the strength to keep moving forward.
As we travel this road together, we add to the indescribable beauty of our world—a world that blesses every living creature with gifts beyond measure. The Source of truth and beauty that permeates all things pulls us upward and onward. And just as Beast’s transformation ultimately transforms his entire community, the blessings within our own transformations ripple through our communities like a stone tossed into still waters. Belle and Beast bless their communities in ways simple and profound. We too can bless our communities by embarking on journeys toward transformation and by embracing life-giving change along the way.
As the love between Belle and Beast grows and their faith in one another expands, they create a magic even greater than the spell cast by the enchantress. Likewise, as our love grows and our faith in God and one another expands, we too create the magic of divine love—a magic that connects heaven and earth, a magic that brings the realm of God within our midst. As we ignite hope in others, they too are drawn to join this magical, spiritual journey of transformative love. Together, our creative magic reveals more creative magic; our expansive love generates more expansive love. Just as Beast, Belle, and their communities are bound together within a common story, so too are we bound together within a common story—a story where love and hope strengthen both personal and communal journeys toward transformation.
Sometimes, we are given the miraculous opportunity to be instruments of divine intervention—sparking the light of hope, as Belle did for Beast; opening new worlds for another, as Beast did for Belle; guiding and encouraging others along the way, as the servants did for both of our heroes. In the end, there was not just one savior in this story; there never is. Belle saves Beast; Beast saves Belle; Beast saves the castle community at the same time the castle community saves Beast and Belle. And while this is playing out, all are strengthened by the magical power of transformative love; all are helped along by a mysterious spiritual guide—seldom seen, but present nevertheless. In the end, these beloved fairytale characters save one another as surely as they are saved. So it is with our stories of transformation as well. Through the power of transformative love, we save one another as surely as we are being saved.
Could there be a better resolution to our stories? Could there be a more fitting remembrance to our lives than that we spent our days well: saving others, and being saved; transforming the broken hearted and being transformed; blessing the weak and the needy, and being blessed by them in turn? Truly, this is a fairytale ending to pray and work for. Truly the realm of God will be in our midst when each and every inhabitant on earth can say: “Love has transformed me; and through me, love has transformed the world.” May we trust in this love. May we embrace the light within. And may we always see clearly, so that we recognize this truth: Beauty is all around. Beauty is within. Beauty is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As an individual and corporate consultant with an emphasis on the powerful gifts that creativity, change and transformation bring to individuals and communities, Mary Scifres brings her inspirational outlook and energetic leadership to speaking engagements, writing, teaching, and coaching. Mary’s engaging, relational style helps audiences and clients explore personal and institutional change. Her passion is contagious, as is her vision of change as a friendly companion—an ever-present companion brimming with limitless possibilities on our journeys toward transformation. Most of all, Mary inspires people who are inspiring others and working to make the world a better place.
A graduate of Boston University and the University of Indianapolis, Mary Scifres is an ordained United Methodist pastor who has penned hundreds of sermons and dozens of worship resource books over the last 25 years. Mary is the author of Searching for Seekers: Ministry with a New Generation of the Unchurched and Just in Time! Special Services. For the past twenty-seven years, Mary has co-authored annual publications of Prepare!: An Ecumenical Music and Worship Planner and The United Methodist Music and Worship Planner with David Bone. And for the past fifteen years, Mary has co-edited The Abingdon Worship Annual with her husband, B. J. Beu for Abingdon Press. The two have recently published Is It Communion Sunday Already?! Communion Resources for All Seasons through Amazon. Finally, Mary pens several on-line resources each month that are available through her website.
To reach Mary for speaking engagements or book signings, email [email protected]. Learn more about Mary’s work by visiting maryscifres.com.
ENDNOTES
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[1] Gibran, Kahlil. “On Children” from The Prophet. 1923.
[2] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[3] 1 John 4:8
[4] Beauty and the Beast. 2017 Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films. This verse of poetry was likely inspired by the poetry of William Sharp, which Belle reads to Beast beforehand. Sharp’s beautiful poem from A Crystal Forest, mid 1800s) Selected Writings of Wm Sharp, Vol. 1, Poems, TRANSCRIPTS FROM NATURE (FROM “THE HUMAN INHERITANCE” AND “EARTH'S VOICES”) 1882-1886 reads:
The air is blue and keen and cold
And in a frozen sheeth enrolled
Each branch, each twig, each blade of grass
Seems clad miraculously in glass
[5] Torah can refer to all of traditional Jewish learning, but “the Torah” usually refers to the written Torah, also known as the Chumash (the five volumes or Pentateuch, sometimes referred to as the Five Books of Moses). Hillel, a famous sage of ancient Judaism, is oft-quoted for expressing the golden rule as the summary of all of Torah in the Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a.
[6] Mark 7:15, 20-21, 23
[7] Matthew 23:25, 27-28
[8] Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. © 2011 Richard Rohr. Published by Jossey-Bass.
[9] Matthew 6:19-21 and Matthew 16:23
[10] 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
[11] John 10:10
[12] Matthew 14:29-31
[13]Read the full story of this unusual experience in Acts 2:1-20.
[14] Thoreau, Henry David. Walden or Life in the Woods. 1854.
[15] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[16] Geisel, Theodor Seuss. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. © 1957 and 1985 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.
[17] Mark 10:15
[18] Luke 7:36-50
[19] Luke 2:7 indicates there was no guest room available for Joseph and Mary as she prepared to give birth. Matthew 2:13 indicates that an angel warns Joseph to flee with his new wife and baby to safety in Egypt, away from the threat that King Herod is seeking to kill the baby Jesus.
[20] Luke 10:25-37
[21] Matthew 7:20
[22] Matthew 25:43. Read the full Parable of the Sheep and the Goats by reading Verses 31-46 of Chapter 25 in The Gospel According to Matthew.
[23] Read the full story in The Gospel of John, Chapter 9, verses 1-41.
[24] Matthe
w 6:25-34
[25] Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, late 16th century.
[26] Einstein, Albert. Statement to William Miller, from the memoirs of William Miller, an editor, quoted in Life magazine, May 2, 1955; Expanded, p. 281. Full quote: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
[27] Mark 2:27
[28] Matthew 5:13-14
[29] While a sign points to something that is absent, a symbol re-presents something that is actually present.
[30] Mark 7:18, 20
[31] Luke 18:15-17
[32] Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. 1871.
[33] Ephesians 1:17-18a, paraphrase
[34] de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine. The Little Prince. Translated from the French by Katherine Woods. ©1943 and 1971 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
[35] John 11:41b; Matthew 11:25; Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-43; Luke 9:10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
[36] Beauty and the Beast. 2017 Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films.
[37] Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act 1, Scene 1. 1596.
[38] Townshend, Pete. “Let My Love Open the Door,” Empty Glass, Atco Records, 1980.
[39] Henri Nouwen, “SILENCE: On Words and Silence,” from The Way of the Heart. © 1981 Henri Nouwen.
[40] Matthew 5:8
[41] 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John; 2 John; 3 John
[42] John 15:13
[43] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[44] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Beauty and the Beast” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[45] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[46] John 15:13
[47] Ephesians 5:22-25. See especially Verses 22 and 25, which read: “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. . . . Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
[48] Luke 19:1-10
[49] Matthew 27:54
[50] Kloves, Steve, screenwriter and J. K. Rowling, author. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. 2001, Warner Bros., Heydey Films and 1492 Pictures.
[51] Mark 15:4
[52] Matthew 27:24b
[53] John 1:1-9
[54] Bono and the Edge, “Song for Someone,” Songs of Innocence, © 2014 Island Records
[55] An adaptation of Jesus’ teaching of Hillel’s “Golden Rule”: “Do to others what you would have others do to you” (Luke 6:31).
[56] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[57] The Lion King. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994.
[58] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[59] In John 15:15, Jesus says: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.”
[60] Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. 1395. Her original Middle English quote states, “For in the Beholding of God we fall not, and in the beholding of self we stand not.”
[61] Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34
[62] The Parable of the Talents can be found in Matthew 25:14-30.
[63] From 1 John 4:18
[64] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[65] John 11:35
[66] Ezekiel 37:1-14
[67] Paul writes of this same idea in Romans 8:23, reminding that the entire creation community yearns for transformation into the world God intends for us to be and become.
[68] Beauty and the Beast. 2017 Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films.
[69] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[70] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Something There,” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[71] Genesis 2:18-24
[72] Ecclesiastes 4:9
[73] Matthew 18:20
[74] Luke 4:29
[75] Mark 6:4
[76] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[77] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Belle,” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[78] Woolverton, Linda, screenplay writer. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.
[79] Luke 3:23 tells us that “Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his work.”
[80] This is a non-scriptural story of Jesus’ early life, dating from the 2nd century, likely written to satisfy a yearning to hear more miraculous stories of Jesus’ childhood. Scholars agree that it was not written by the disciple Thomas.
[81] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Belle (Reprise),” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[82] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Gaston,” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[83] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Be Our Guest,” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[84] Thurman, Howard. “Christmas is Waiting to be Born,” The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations. © 1973 Harper and Row.
[85] Hillel, Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a
[86] According to Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2, and Luke 9:29, Jesus was transfigured on a mountaintop, filled with a radiant light shining from his face and clothed in robes as white as lightning. Heavenly visages of Elijah and Moses appear in conversation beside him during this transfiguration experience.
[87] Ashman, Howard, lyricist. “Beauty and the Beast” from Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. © 1991 Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company, Inc.
[88] This statement is found in the Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 10:6.
[89] Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 6th century B.C., English transliteration 1891.
[90] Learn more about the story of the poppies at http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/remembrance-poppy.html.
[91] Matthew 19:21
[92] Isaiah 40:3
[93] Truly, God is closer to us than our very breath and moves within us with such subtlety (most of the time), we are unaware of the Spirit’s gentle guidance.
[94] Disney, Walt. Credited at the end of Walt Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, Walt Disney Films, 2007. The full quote states, “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”