I just finished watching Pan's Labrynth--a very good movie by the way--and I was completely struck by one of the images in the movie and my reaction to it. The little girl in the movie, Ofelia, is instructed to enter this room and retrieve a dagger (you'll have to watch the movie for all the details). The one instruction given to her is that she is not to eat or drink anything when she goes. So she goes in and all of this elaborate food is spread all over the table. She walks by it, retrieves the dagger from the wall with a key, and then proceeds to exit the room. She's almost there, but she turns and eyes the fruit on the table. She selects a grape with her hand as the fairies (which are her guides) begin begging her not to eat it. The whole time I'm thinking, "Don't eat it you idiot! How hard is it to obey one simple instruction? What are you thinking?" Then she eats it and...well...you finish the story...you know what happens next--Disaster.
My reaction was probably a common one. I was wrapped up in the story, not even thinking about what it symbolized and I felt sick about what she had done. I mean, I couldn't believe she actually ate the food--the one thing she was told not to do. Then, after the movie was over I began to reflect. She's me. She's you. She's all of us every time we choose to disobey the one thing we're not supposed to. That imagery is now graven into my head. The idiocy of the girl and the enticement of the fruit. The pleasure lasted for a moment and then it was gone and the girl had to turn around immediately and face the consequences.
Our own lusts are the same way. We hear the words that scream to us, "Don't do it!" and the God who pleads with us, "For your own good, don't do it!" And we do it, because in our eyes its so enticing. So deceiving. But we do it. Over and over and over and over again. We are idiots indeed.
But, you know what the good news is? In Christ, God saves idiots like you and me. And every time our sin reminds us of our own idiocy, Christ shows up with scars to reminds us of forgiveness and redemption. Praise be to God!
