Earlier tonight, I was watching The Lion King with one of my roommates. Dana and I were pretty excited because we turned it on right before the "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" scene, which is one of the best love scenes in any movie ever. (Sidenote: Only Disney could make an excellent love scene with talking lions.) I was casually watching after that was over, mindlessly quoting every line with Dana, not expecting any lessons to be learned, until it came to the scene posted above.
"That's not my father, that's just my reflection."
"No, look harder... You see, he lives in you."
I quoted these lines and then realized exactly what I said. Yes, I understand that whoever wrote this movie may not have intentionally put these lines in so that Christians would connect it to the Gospel, but there's so much Gospel verbiage packed into this one scene that it's hard not to draw a parallel.
Simba was the rightful king, but had not been living as such. He was the king's son, but had disregarded his responsibilities--in fact, he literally ran away from them. When he looked in the water, he only saw himself and was quite disappointed with the reflection.
Rafiki knows who he is, though, and sees the potential Simba has if he would live as the person (or lion) he really is. He urges Simba to look harder. To see past the failing reflection of himself. To see that the king lives inside him. To see who he really is because the king lives in him.
"Simba, you have forgotten who you are."
"No, how could I?"
"You have forgotten who you are and so forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. ...Remember who you are. You are my son. The one true king. Remember who you are."
Do you see the correlation here? We are Simba. Oftentimes, we look in the pond and just see a reflection of ourselves. We see the shame and guilt of our sin. We see our failures. We may even see our vain successes. We see the hidden dark places that no one else knows about. We see ourselves as though we are not sons and daughters of the king.
But we are the sons and daughters of the king! Too often, we don't live as though we are co-heirs with Christ. We live like we're convicted fellons in the dungeon, wallowing in our sin. This was true of our lives at one point, but not once we were adopted by The King. Paul says, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).
Don't forget who you are, and therefore forget who God is. You are the Lord's. Because of Christ's love and sacrifice for us, you have been forgiven and washed clean from all of your sins. Look in the pond, past the failing reflection of yourself and see the reflection of Christ and His shed blood in your place. Living in you. That's how the Father sees you!
You are THE King's son or daughter. Words can't even begin to describe how truly amazing that is, but as Uncle Ben says, "With great power comes great responsibility." Because we are heirs, we have a responsibility to strive to live as Christ did (emphasis on the word "strive"). The more we try to live as He did, the more grace we will experience from Him, the more grace we will be able to give out, and the more like Him we will become. We will fail and He will forgive us (but to clarify: that does not give us free reign to intentionally sin just so that grace may abound). It is the great circle of life.
You were bought with a price. You are redeemed. You are forgiven. You have been washed clean. You are a co-heir with Christ. You are a citizen with the saints in the household of God. You are loved by the Creator of love. Remember who you are. Live according to who you are, not who you were.
