Love Changes Everything

A FROZEN DEVOTIONAL FOR ADULT DISNEY LOVERS

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” -1 John 4:18

On this earth, there is no perfect love. No matter how great our earthly relationships, whether family or friends that God has placed in our lives, we have not experienced a love that is without its insecurities. Life is uncertain. Some know this reality all too well. Death, divorce, abuse, personal struggles with insecurity, and other hardships can make relationships seem all too, well…broken. Frozen’s Elsa is one who knows this truth well. In her musical duet with Anna, “For the First Time in Forever (Reprise),” where the sisters duo back and forth with increasing intensity, Elsa finally cries out, “There’s so much fear!”

Because of her childhood memory of accidentally hurting her sister with her icy powers, and her parents’ subsequent plan to keep her hidden away in her bedroom, Elsa has little faith or trust in love or relationships. She feels that she alone is responsible for keeping her personal world safe, and that she will do—by remaining in isolation from all people.

The movie depicts Elsa’s condition as having a “frozen heart.” She has learned through her circumstances to bury her feelings and remain coldhearted to the people all around her. She won’t let anyone in. It’s a depressing situation for Elsa and those closest to her.

All of this, Elsa admits, is motivated by fear in her life. Even in her nightmarish childhood flashback of accidentally hurting Anna, she cries out to her parents that she is scared. Later, she admits in the song, “Let It Go” that it was fear that was controlling her. Even though she declares in this “power song” that the fears can’t get to her anymore, we know that they still are. The wise troll, Grand Poppy, in a sort of prophesy over young Elsa, tells her, “Fear will be your enemy.”

In all of the rising action of the movie, what will finally break through Elsa’s fear, and moreover, her frozen heart?

As Frozen draws to an end, so too do Princess Anna and Queen Elsa draw to the conclusion that love changes everything. Princess Anna has been cursed by the blast of her sister’s fingers and has therefore also been inflicted with a frozen heart. A frozen heart, we learn, will threaten to take the very life out of Anna, someone who was once so full of life.

The characters run around desperately striving to get Anna the love that will heal her. They falsely believe that romantic love will do the trick. She just needs a kiss from her fiancé—the one she just met!

But it’s not just any love that heals—it’s true love. “True love thaws a frozen heart.” This is the moral of the story. The Bible very clearly points out what this love looks like: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loves us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Be on the lookout for some “Disney Gospels” merch like this t-shirt now available for purchase on the Shop tab of the website!

True love is willing to sacrifice, even life itself, for the sake of another person. Prince Hans clearly does not possess such love. In fact, as Anna waits in the wintery white blast for the much more genuine Kristoff to ride up and give her the kiss she so desperately needs, Anna spots the evil Prince Hans out of the corner of her eye, about to take a sword to Elsa. In a split second, Anna is faced with saving her own life or saving that of her sister’s. All of the excitement of the movie culminates as Anna makes the gut-wrenching choice to sacrifice her own life for the sake of her sister—yes, her sister who has hurt her on multiple occasions. Love compels Anna to try everything she can—putting her own wellbeing in danger to save Elsa, who at this point, is arguably not worth the risk.

This is sacrificial love to the highest degree: to sacrifice one’s own life for the sake of another, even when they don’t deserve it. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8 NIV) It is this kind of love that frees Elsa from her personal oppression—caused by fear—that is plaguing her on more levels than just the physical.

“This is sacrificial love to the highest degree: to sacrifice one’s own life for the sake of another, even when they don’t deserve it.”

As the movie draws to a close, I can’t think of a more perfect example of John’s declaration in the fourth chapter of his first letter that “Perfect love drives out fear.” In Elsa’s case, her sister Anna’s radical display of sacrificial love drives out her long-withstanding fear. Elsa’s unwielding chains of fear are thrown off, and she is now free to see and to use her powers as a gift rather than a curse. She is free to open her heart to others because someone has shown her she is loved despite her shortcomings and failures. She is loved unconditionally. She can be who she is, without the burden of fear. In this newfound understanding of love, she feels safe and secure for the first time (maybe in…forever!).

“She is free to open her heart to others because someone has shown her she is loved despite her shortcomings and failures.”

This is the story of the Christian faith. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) For once we were condemned. We deserve eternal separation from our loving Father. But Jesus Christ stepped out of his rightful place at the right hand of God the Father, and allowed himself to be beaten and mocked, and placed on a cross to die for us. God chose to do this out of his immeasurable love for us, that we might not receive what we deserve, but instead receive the incredible love the God of the Universe offers to us. The Christian faith is filled with peace, which replaces fear, because we have the love of a Father secured not by what we do right or in jeopardy of what we do wrong—but sealed in faith and given freely as a gift. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“The Christian faith is filled with peace, which replaces fear, because we have the love of a Father secured not by what we do right or in jeopardy of what we do wrong—but sealed in faith and given freely as a gift.”

Reflect:

Elsa is clearly in a state of struggle. What internal struggles or fears have you been battling recently? How has this struggle been showing up in your actions? 1 John 4:18 (“Perfect love drives out fear”) suggests you cannot simultaneously accept real love and also be fearful. Does fear affect how you see and experience grace in your life? Do you readily accept God’s love and grace? Why or why not?

*Once you’ve done some personal reflection, will you share a comment below with us?

Pray:

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for sending your son Jesus to Earth to personally show me the way of grace and mercy. Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus’s life to set me free from fear. Lord, I am specifically fearful of: (Confess to God right now the things that you most fear.) I recognize that these fears are not founded upon your powerful love for me. Help me to not forget that love. Help me to replace my fear with a deep understanding of your sacrificial and unconditional love for me. Lord, lead me into deeper relationship with you and more steadfast reliance upon You.

In Jesus Name who provides this freedom,

       Amen

*The words and ideas expressed in this post do not reflect, nor are they endorsed, authorized by, or affiliated with, the Walt Disney Company.

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 school-aged children, and a mentor to teenagers and young adults. You can learn more about the heart behind her blog HERE.

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