This summer, to ice the cake a bit more, Katie (our 9 year
old daughter) has been chosen to sing the love song from Aladdin at her summer
camp musical. Those kids do a fantastic
show every year - mostly songs from Broadway productions, complete with motions
and some dancing. Their music teacher is
pretty phenomenal. Of course, Katie eats
it up!
As I was reflecting on the work we are doing to help her
memorize the words of the song, the Lord shared some thoughts with me, and so –
faithful reader – I opted to write them down and share with you.
Aladdin is a street urchin and has learned to steal to feed
himself. He is chosen to go into the
Cave of Wonders to retrieve the lamp, but breaks the rules and instead remains stuck
in the Cave. In come the lamp and the
genie, and his world changes dramatically.
Suddenly, he is faced with the opportunity to have three
wishes fulfilled. But, Aladdin is
smart. He doesn’t just wish for food or
riches. He wants to court the beautiful
princess Jasmine. In order to do that,
he has to be a prince. So, what does he
wish for? To be a prince, of course! All the things that go along with being a
prince, the son of a king, will meet his needs.
Once he becomes a prince, the plot thickens and he has to
continually wonder if the apple of his eye or his father will find out who he
used to be, I mean before his change to being a prince. His fear is that if he frees Genie, which he
has promised to do, he will be found out and the “jig” will be up. However, the Lord laid this question on my
heart: Aladdin is now a prince. That IS his new reality. Even if the people realized it, will it
change him back to a street urchin? How
can it? His world has changed, and now
he is a prince. Like permanently, see?
As believers in Christ, do we not often live the same
way? Jesus came to give us a new
life. He makes us sons and daughters of
the best King ever – Creator God. Who we
were before matters little in comparison.
The Bible tells us that we are a new creation. Yet, we spend our time worrying that those
around us will figure out who we used to be and point their finger at us,
saying we really aren’t princes and princesses, but lousy sinners.
Ain’t nobody got time for dat, to quote the vernacular of
the day! We need to be moving forward,
confident in our citizenship in the greatest kingdom ever. Yet, we spend our time cowering in the corner
because we let the devil convince us that we are really not who we say we are,
but just pretenders.
Wake up, dear friend.
Of course you aren’t perfect.
Neither am I. I am just a
used-to-be street urchin that met the God of the universe through his son
Jesus, making me a true princess. If you
have accepted this free gift, you are too.
Now, go out and live like it.
