Wednesday, January 26, 2011 2 comments

kingdom.

here is a post i wrote right after christmas but have since kept in blog purgatory, unsure of whether it made sense or not. but then, after a candid performance review- type meeting with my boss, i decided you know what? everything doesn't always have to be perfect. sometimes it just has to be something i enjoy and work hard for. so here it is.



as you probably know by now, i have - as my friend Mike says - "very specific feelings" toward many things.

like sequels.
generally, i'm not a fan of unplanned sequels. most movies or books that were meant to stand alone should stay that way. nothing good can come from adding on. there are, of course, exceptions to this rule, including Sister Act- in which the second clearly surpasses the first, due to the addition of Lauryn Hill; and The Might Ducks trilogy, which I don't even feel the need to justify. But for the most part, sequels like Legally Blonde 2, Dumb and Dumberer and The Land Before Time (parts 2 through....13?) ruin it for everyone.

that being said, i was wholly against Shrek Forever After, the 4th installment in a series that was already pushing it.

but this is not a movie review blog. it is a blog about jesus and i'm getting there.

it wasn't until christmas eve this year that i noticed how often Jesus is spoken of as a king, especially in christmas songs. maybe it's because these songs were written in monarchial societies or because "king" rhymes so well with "sing" or "bring" or "5 golden rings"... i guess sometimes phrases like that tend to fade into white noise after a lifetime of christmas eve services. but this year i was surprised to find myself full-out crying during 'joy to the world' and realized that something's shifted.
and i think it's safe to blame shrek 4.

(spoiler alert... but seriously are there any other adults out there, lining up to see this movie?)
in shrek forever after, shrek gets a glimpse into what would have happened if he was never born. in a world without shrek, princess fiona was never rescued and the kingdom of far far away falls into the hands of the evil rumplestiltskin. this beautiful and peaceful kingdom falls into ruin -  it becomes a land ravaged by famine, void of justice and patrolled by witches who throw molotov pumpkins. good people are either forced into rumplestiltskin's service or forced to live in hiding. it's all around depressing.

i guess before this year and before Shrek 4, i always thought of christmas as just kind of a pre-easter celebration. it always seemed a little grotesque to celebrate the birth of a baby because we know He grows up to die for our freedom. but this year, standing in christmas eve service, caught up in that surreal warmth that the candlelight songs always give me, my mind kept looping back to the idea of a kingdom without a Good King. if Jesus was never born, Goodness never would have been introduced to our human existence. sin would still be free to ravage our world and our kingdom - chucking molotov pumpkins at our souls.

and i heard them read those words they read every year:

" the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. "
and i think the human heart can only bear so much significance, so much beauty, so much gratefulness, before it starts to spill out of our eyes.
so as the music swelled and i looked out into a sea of tiny lights, i thought of a world ruled by a bad king, suddenly receiving it's true King. a king that ancient books say we will call Wonderful Counseler, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. and i realized we're not just celebrating the eventual sacrifice of Jesus (although yes, that is the worst/best thing ever), but rather the defeat of a bad king. the rescue of our kingdom. the introduction of light and hope.

and maybe this is something that every kindergartener already knows and i'm just late to the game. what else is new? but i warned you that this post was iffy.and so yes, joy to the world -  not just because He died, but because He came to stay. we celebrate the birth of a God who is called Emmanuel. a God who has been, since that silent night, everlastingly, delightedly, firmly and decidedly AMONG US.
because just as darkness is merely the absence of light, hell is a kingdom absent of God. He will bring us GOODNESS AND LIGHT. He is very near and He is redeeming this kingdom.
 
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