1.Introduction
'The
Little Mermaid' was published in 1837 by Danish fairy tale writer Hans
Christian Andersen.
The Little Mermaid gives up everything because she loves the prince. It's like our relationship with Jesus. The Little Mermaid's love leads us to the love of Jesus. Now it is our turn. What about our love for Jesus?
2.Summary
The
Little Mermaid lives with her father, a sea king, grandmother, and five older
sisters. Mermaids have permission to rise out of the sea when they reach their
fifteenth year.
It was
finally the youngest princess's turn. As she swam up the water, she saw a ship
holding a banquet. It was a birthday party for a prince. The moment the Little
Mermaid saw the prince, she fell in love.
The girl hid nearby and waited for someone to help him out.
A young woman from the monastery found the prince and took care of him. The
prince, coming to life, mistook the woman for a lifesaver. The Little Mermaid
was heartbroken with grief.
She
came down to the sea and asked her grandma, "Can humans live
forever?"
The old lady replied that mermaids sometimes
lived up to three hundred years, but the span of human life was even shorter.
The
grandma also said that when a mermaid died, it became a sea bubble, while
humans lived with immortal eternal. The Little Mermaid wanted to be a human.
She wished she would love the prince forever as a human.
She
went to the sea witch and asked for her help. Instead of giving a potion for making human
legs, the sorceress demanded the princess's tongue, which allowed her to sing
beautiful songs.
In addition to that, The eternal soul of a human being that
the Little Mermaid wanted was not easy to obtain. It
was only possible to get it when she reached marriage with the prince, being
loved by him. If the prince married another woman, the mermaid would turn into
a bubble.
Moreover, once she had become a human being, she could
never come back as a mermaid forever. The Little Mermaid accepted all this.
She approached the beach close to the palace where the
prince was and drank a draught of the potion. When she fell unconscious, the
fish's tail was gone, and she had a pair of human legs.
The prince discovered her. He liked her, who
was pretty and kind despite being unable to speak. He took her anywhere he
went. The
prince was fond of seeing her dancing. The desperate girl for love danced for
the prince with all her heart even though she felt pain and shed blood at every
step.
The king wanted the prince to marry the princess of a
neighboring country. Surprisingly, the princess turned out to be the lady, the
prince believed, to save his life on the coast. The
prince didn't hesitate to accept the marriage a moment. They threw a party on
the ship to celebrate the wedding.
The poor girl did not get the prince's love. As the sea
witch warned, she was about to become a foam. At that time, her sisters came up
and gave a knife they got from the sea witch. If the Little Mermaid plunges it
into the prince's heart and his blood falls upon her feet, she will be once
more a mermaid.
The Little Mermaid sneaked into the cabin
and raised a knife at the sleeping prince by the bride, but she could not stab
him. She went
back out of the cabin, threw the knife away into the waves and jumped into the
sea.
The heroine of this tragic love turned into a bubble. But
that wasn't the end of the story. Afterwards, she became a spirit of the air,
feeling the warm sunshine.
Thanks to her kind
heart, she will have a chance to obtain an immortal soul one day in the next
three hundred years.
3. Lessons
However, as we read the story, we rather feel the deeper
fragrance of Jesus from the Little Mermaid.
Read one of the monologues of the Little Mermaid after she
rescued the drowning prince and laid him on the beach. (among the quotes in the
Disneyland animation)
"What
would I pay to stay here beside you?"
This word of the Little Mermaid directs our eyes straight
to Jesus. As Revelation 5:9 says, He is the Savior Jesus who purchased persons
for God. In other words, Jesus paid His blood to set
us free from prisoners of sin.
What price did the
Little Mermaid pay to stay beside the prince? Above all, she gave up her status
as the sea princess.
It
reminds us of Jesus, who abandoned the glory of heaven to come down to this
earth because he loved us who were sinners.
The Little Mermaid also paid her tongue and voice to the
sea witch instead of getting human legs. Moreover, she even accepted the
worst-case scenario of dying when not getting love.
We take the scent of Jesus' love from
Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." It is an amazing love that has
reached the terminal of the Cross, starting from the dishonor of incarnation.
The Little Mermaid, who is destined to become a bubble,
gets a chance not to die. If she kills the prince with a knife of the witch,
she could go back to a mermaid.
But the Little Mermaid didn't go that way. It's because of
love. The choice has led her to lose the mortal life, but to gain the chance
for immortal life.
"What would I pay to stay here beside you?" The
Little Mermaid asked so and dedicated everything of her, even life.
If so, what about me? What can I dedicate to love?
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