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And I ...Sunday, May 3, 2015
John 15:5-6 Lady Tremaine had told Cinderella that she had once married for love but lost her husband, and she married Ella's father only for security. She had to protect herself and her two daughters. Now she looked back at Cinderella. Cate Blanchett's chiseled face was frozen with pride, or ... She looked away a bit into the distance. "Because. You are young, and innocent, and good. And I ..." Then her stepmother locked Cinderella into the attic. She proceeded with her plan to protect herself and her sisters. She steeled herself and lied to the king. But she failed. Her self protective maneuvering finally resulted in exposure and banishment. Still, this is a story, and a movie about goodness and grace. Ella's wise mother spoke from her deathbed to her daughter, "Always be kind and brave." The prince embraced his father on his deathbed as they both strove to say how much they meant to each other. As the new king and Cinderella left Lady Tremaine staring at them, Ella quietly said to her, "I forgive you." In his review Steven D. Greydanus asked, "Can the protagonists of a major Hollywood family film still hope to be born into happy families and enjoy close relationships with loving parents - relationships unshadowed by misunderstanding and oppressive parental expectations, if not by tragedy and misfortune? "Is it conceivable that a heroine might meet a young man who is neither a scoundrel, misfit, buffoon nor uncouth loner: a young man whose sensitivity, courtesy and poise matches her own?" Director Kenneth Branagh, most famous for his Shakespeare, said he wanted to make Cinderella a movie in which "kindness was a superpower." Jesus words' rush into this story. "I am the vine and you are the branches." From this relationship comes the strength and grace of parents and their children. None turn from their source, and they do indeed bear much fruit. Unlike the stepmother. She does not "remain." And she withers. She might be called evil, or wicked, or cruel. But these are results of trying to live without the nourishment of the vine. Simply we live, Lord, and simply we choose to say yes to you. Pruning is painful. But you are not killing us; you are renewing your life within us. What we lack is what is inside of you - substance, life, meaning, beauty, goodness, community, love.* You are the vine. You bring us life.
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Cinderella finally had enough. When her stepmother broke her glass slipper, Cinderella stared at her in disbelief. "Why are you so cruel?"