“Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands”~ Isaiah 49:15-16a

The only love that can truly awaken your heart is the love of Christ, to which the Sleeping Beloved saga is an allegory.  Each of our versions covers an aspect of the awakening heart.  Zellandine’s story tenderly depicts the emotional journey of a survivor of violence.  We saw how nothing – no terror, no pain, no abuse – could ever separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35-379), and that His love is able to redeem all things (Isaiah 61:1-3). 

Because Zellandine’s story deals with the emotional journey of a survivor, it is timeless.  Our next heroine, Talia, is far more at home in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.  She speaks for a culture quite alien to us, a culture where women didn’t have a say and had to find contentment without love.  We saw this to a certain extent in Zellandine’s story; it is more pronounced in Talia’s.

“Sun, Moon, and Talia” – our Italian Sleeping Beloved – is just one of many stories incorporated into Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone (or The Tale of Tales).  Published posthumously between 1634-1636, the compilation of five volumes combines Basile’s intellectual and comic genius with traditional oral tales collected from the area around Naples.[1]  Our Sleeping Beauty story is found in middle of the last volume, and shares many thematic elements with Zellandine’s tale. 

Zellandine vs. Talia

Although we could certainly go into the survivor motif again, I think we covered it fairly well with Zellandine.  For Talia’s story, I want to draw out a theme I only touched on previously: the power of a parent’s love.

We all know a parent’s love is powerful – or at least we feel it should be so.  It should be lavish and unyielding, unconquerable and fierce.  It should be unconditional, and it should always choose to respond to the need of a child. 

Is it any wonder God uses the allegory of a parent’s love to describe His own? 

What’s more, can you imagine if God’s heart had not awoken to our plight?  We sinned – and continue to sin – against Him, but He chooses to keep His heart open to us.  He has every right to shut us out…but He doesn’t. 

Humanity had a need – to be reconciled with Him – and the Father’s heart responded in the form of lavish love: the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ.  The Father sent His One and Only Son to the cross to die for our sins, to pay the penalty we could not, and to redeem our hearts. 

His children had a need, and the Father responded with fierce and devoted love. 

God’s heart responded to your cry; but will you heed His call of love, and awaken in return?

 

Sources

[1] Canepa, Introduction to the Tale of Tales, p. 15


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