Raya and the Last Dragon Reminds Me of What I long For

“How did this world get so broken?”

“It was paradise, but then…”

“We all became enemies.”

This is how the story begins. The narrator sets the scene. It sounds severely and sorely familiar.

I’m queued in. I know this story. The one where the people live harmoniously with their God, and the people live in peace with each other.

But it doesn’t last. There’s a disruption. There’s a force that is opposite—that is not. It is the antithesis to all of this peace and harmony, and this force, whatever it is, is set on destruction. The force, in this case called “the druun,” turns “everyone they touch to stone.” It doesn’t take their physical forms away per say, but the life is gone from within these humans who have been fumigated by the druun’s influence. Their eyes, their heads, their hearts are turned to stone. Their hands reach out for something unattainable, something to fulfill, to bring life back, but it goes unsatisfied.

And so, the divine steps in and does something epic to save all the people from all this turning to stone. Raya laments, “It should have been this big inspirational moment where humanity united over [the divine’s] sacrifice, but instead (sigh) people being people, they all fought.”

See how this all plays out in real-time by going to my Insta Reel.

And like the gate that was put in front of the garden of Eden, and all the people cast out, Raya tells us, “And the gem had to be hidden.” It wasn’t safe in the hands of men. It had to be protected.

In all this turmoil, there is yet another stark contrast— a still, small moment. A baptism, it seems. A unification with the divine. Water falls on Raya’s head. She is tenderly called “Princess of Heart, my daughter” by her strong and loving father. Then, she’s given a task and welcomed into joining the ranks as a guardian of the good news: the good news being that the spirit of the Sisu dragon didn’t die with what looked like defeat. It remains, and it reigns. We are pulled into a moment where we see the characters, Raya and her father, accept their place in the world and bow in reverence to something greater than themselves.

“The Biggest Story” illustrations by Don Clark, reminiscent of Raya and the Last Dragon setting

Raya’s Ba has begun the process of teaching his daughter wisdom. And he lets her in on a little more: there is a reason that each of the people groups are named after a part of the body of the divine. Because all the people once worked together in harmony. And he imparts on her his beautiful vision of what could be: that the harmony she only knows about through her father’s history lesson? It could return once more. Oh, how we need to hear this in the 2020’s. 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us of this concept, in the section “One Body, Many Parts.” It describes God’s humanity, moreover His people, in a beautifully hopeful and empowering kind of way:

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink…so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (vv. 12-13, 25-26).

Ba seems to see it this way. He believes there is a better way than fighting, a better way than only seeing our differences. He sees Kumandra, he sees the Garden of Eden returning. He sees peace. And it starts with sharing a meal, a meal where differences are celebrated, where people groups are recognized for their contributions. “But we have to take the first step,” he instructs his daughter. We can’t leave it up to someone else. We can’t just hope and dream. We must make the first move toward that someone with whom we differ.

And so, Raya and her father do just that. They turn words into action and make the first move. Well, guess what? It goes pretty terribly. Our eccentric, learning-to-be-human dragon, Sisu reminds us as she observes with zero inhibition, “Being people is hard.” Well, she got that right! “You lie to get what you want,” she continues observing.

Subsequently, animosity and lack of trust become the norm. The greatest example of which exists between Raya and Namaari, the warrior princess of Fang. Namaari has been trained for one thing: to look out for her own people, furthermore to try to steal whatever prosperity can be found in what Raya’s people possess, the heart of Sisu.

But plot-twist, in her own ostracization from the divine, Namaari—feeling like an enemy, far away from the divine dragon’s gem—has, in one face-to-face encounter with the last glowing dragon, a heart change. Not sure how to process it, she sticks with the status quo and defends her people.

As the intensity of the conflict between the different people groups of Kumandra arises, both Raya and Namaari come to the realization that the laying down of oneself is the only way to bring about that reconciliation that Raya’s Ba dreamt about and bring life back to all that was lost.

This is where the resolution of the story reminds me of the message told in 2 Corinthians 5 titled, “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” It reads “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again….All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Jesus, the Divine, began a good work in you, and he began a good work in humanity. We must finish the work: to reconcile humanity to Himself.

Will Raya and Namaari lay themselves and their pride down long enough to bring about reconciliation? How about you—where do you see the world and those around you broken and in need of Christ’s heart of reconciliation as showed through you making the first move?

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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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