Encanto and our Stairway to Heaven

Disney’s Encanto is a movie for all the performers. All the achievers. All the perfectionists. And in this weary-worn world full of anxiety to perform, achieve, and perfect, we all need a message. A message about rest and about where our identity lies. Because isn’t that why we’re all tired? We’re trying to perfect an image of ourselves that is unsustainable. We are attempting to create our own self-worth. The worth of ourselves only ever came from God.

We have forgotten the source of our worth, and so we try to drum it up, and we miss the mark. We hold onto these false identity markers, but they let us down. Eventually, we can’t hold the standard any longer. Our arms get tired, and we must put them down.

So, what is left? In Encanto, Mirabel discovers that she must climb the ladder to salvage the whole family’s worth before the candle goes out on their magic. But she’s too late. This task is even too big for her, the one with whom her outcast Uncle Bruno’s vision was about.

Ann Voskamp says it plainly to this family whose holding its collective breath trying to hold it all together for the entire village:

“God doesn’t want to number your failures or count your accomplishments as much as He wants you to have an encounter with Him.

The only ladder over you is Love—and Love came down…

Jesus is your ladder who hung on that Tree…so you can have the gift of rest. When you are wrung out, that is the sign you’ve been reaching for rungs.”

She’s referring to the truth in the Bible that Jesus is our ladder (Genesis 28:10-16 and John 1:51). Ann says, “Sometimes you’re just the most tired of trying to be strong…There are no ladders to climb up, because Christ came down one to get you.”

The worth of ourselves only ever came from God.

In the story of God’s people, Jacob, when he is dog-tired, takes a rest in the middle of his journey. He rests his head on a stone…Sounds comfortable, right? He has the most amazing dream. There is a stairway, and it goes up to heaven. It is a stairway from earth to heaven. Angels are ascending and descending on it. It is a beautiful, mysterious sight from a spiritual realm we haven’t yet fully grasped.

The story comes from the book of Genesis, way back in the beginning years of God’s precious and imperfect family’s storyline.

Thousands of years later, when Christ comes, he interprets the dream. He is the stairway to heaven. He doesn’t simple show you how to get there. He is the way.

And the Madrigals in Encanto…their whole world is about to come crashing down as they realize their whole reputation, their whole purpose, their whole reason for existing in this world is in jeopardy, and they aren’t in full control. It’s difficult for them to come to terms with their own finite strengths. Their perfectionism isn’t perfect.

They are real, whole people complete with weaknesses and a whole range of emotions that doesn’t seem to fit the mold of their collective family image. They try to hold it together and put on a show and wear their mask which is the role they’ve been given to be the resident “strong one” or “perfect one” or “one who can solve all the problems.”

The movie refreshingly reminds us that to be human, we can’t be all those things all the time. We weren’t meant to carry that weight. The film comes to terms with the reality that we have limits. We get tired. We must release the expectations we’ve put on ourselves and others have put on us as well. We must rest.

In recognizing and coming to grips with our own limitations, the movie is also about letting others carry our burdens with us. We carry them together. Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” When the Madrigals let each other in on their individual burdens, a weight is lifted. Mirabel helps them get honest with their struggles and gives them each freedom to express what is really going on inside.

Encanto reminds us to reevaluate the notion that we are only as valuable as what we bring to others or as loved as the gifts and talents we bring. Give up the ambition of forming your own identity based on what you do or how you perform. Your value comes from Christ. The weight we put on ourselves to measure up to some impossible standard is for naught. You are already loved. Christ was the standard, and He’s given you full access into an identity with him.

Reflection:

There are numerous Bible verses about our identity: We are his children (Galatians 3:26). We can never be separated from his love (8:39). We are forgiven (1 John 1:9) and set free (John 8:36). Many are the lists that have collected these verses into an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper so that we would not be without hope that our identity is indeed in the things God says we are.

Go on a journey to find the verse that speaks most to the lie you often run to in your search for meaning, purpose, and identity in this life. Write the verse on your doorway, your mirror, in your car, and on your heart. Run to the Father, where your identity is secure.

Scene to Rewatch:

Luisa breaks down to Mirabel. She is tired, not just of carrying so much physical weight for people, but I believe, too, of carrying the weight of trying to live up to the expectations of others.

Questions:

What expectations do you unfairly put on yourself?

2. What expectations do you believe others have for you?

3. What lies do you believe about where your own identity comes from?

4. What is the actual truth about your identity in Christ?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

You say in your word that our identity is “hidden in Christ with God” (Colossians 3:3). Thank you for taking the weight off of my shoulders to drum up an identity of worth. You are worthy (Revelation 5:12), and as the lamb who was slain, you’ve purchased my redemption and placed your identity on me. I am no longer ashamed of my limitations and weaknesses, “for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). You are my upward ascent. I rely on you for my redemption. I do not get to Christ; Christ came to me. Thank you.

In Jesus name,

Amen

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POSTED BY

Jenna

Jenna Kruse is a teacher but not in a classroom. She loves to think outside the box and inside the Word and is daily in need of an attitude adjustment. She is a wife to Justin, a mother to three children ages 10, 8 and 5 and a mentor to teenagers and young adults. You can learn more about the heart behind her blog HERE.

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