Film Friday In the new live action remake of The Little Mermaid, Ariel wants to see what life is like on land, even though under the sea the world is beautiful and plentiful. So she strikes a dangerous deal with Ursula, the sea witch. If it goes well, she will marry the prince of her dreams, if not she will forever be Ursula’s slave. I heard recently that grass looks greener over the fence because our view from the side always make it appear more lush than the grass we are already on, when we are looking down at it from above. In other words, it’s a bit of a deception.
At times life can be intolerable and we are right to want another version of it.
But advertisers play on our sense of emptiness, offering us the next best thing, time after time after time. Promising that this will be the thing which satisfies us. Until the next product comes along.
But that gap inside, that longing for a better world is a sign that we are adrift in this world, we need a way home, a path, a door, gateway… a new beginning. And that man from Nazareth, who well understood that things will never fill the gap, offered us something else. Something more. ‘Follow me,’ he said. He offered us a way forward, not an easy way, but the beginning of a whole new life with him.
Ariel is so desperate for change she strikes a dangerous bargain with Ursula, unable to appreciate the world she is in. The writers of the Psalms comment on this saying – ‘Some trust in chariots and horses… we trust in the living God.’ (Psalm 20)
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