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sleeping beloved

Maleficent Restored

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” ~ Genesis 50:20

And here we are, ending at the beginning.  Once more, this post contains spoilers from Disney’s Maleficent – so proceed with care!

Maleficent is no longer the villain we love to fear from the animated classic.  Her heart has shed its masks and been drawn to the call of its savior.  She has remembered who she used to be, before tragedy struck: a warrior-lover, a battle-maiden intent upon protecting that which she loves…

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Maleficent: From Villain to Savior

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.  Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.  And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. ~ Hosea 2:14, 15

Once again, this post contains spoilers from Disney’s 2014 Maleficent…

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Maleficent’s Awakening

Again, this post contains spoilers of Disney’s 2014 Maleficent.

Like in the animated film, the three good fairies raise Aurora as a peasant girl.  Although well-meaning, they’re a rather incompetent bunch.  They have no idea how to care for a baby, and the poor thing is constantly crying because of their neglect.

Even Maleficent cannot withstand the heart-wrenching cries of a babe in true distress…

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Maleficent’s Hardened Heart

“And she reveled in the sorrow her curse had brought…”[1]

 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” ~ Genesis 50:20

“But God will redeem my life from the power of Sheol…” ~ Psalm 49:15

“For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:7-8

(Again, this post contains spoilers of Disney’s 2014 Maleficent.)

In my last post, Maleficent’s wings are brutally taken, but her heart is not yet hardened.  That is about to change.

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Maleficent’s Dignity

“Let us tell an old story anew, and let us see how well you know it…”[1]

This post contains spoilers…so if you don’t want Disney’s 2014 Maleficent  ruined, you should stop reading and watch it before you continue.  Otherwise, proceed.

I love this opening line from the movie.  It evokes a timelessness as the disparate tales of the Sleeping Beloveds are woven together.  And I don’t think man meant to weave it together, either…

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Disney’s “Maleficent”

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” ~ Genesis 50:20

And here we are, back at the beginning.  This was the verse that introduced our very first Sleeping Beloved, and I find it highly appropriate to use it to introduce the last.

It’s been the same question down through the centuries: will your heart awaken to love?…

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The Villainess

Our Sleeping Beloveds have shown us how a heart awakens to love; our villainesses have shown us what happens when we disregard love. 

Like our heroines, each villainess has a different story, but each is dealing with the same broken-hearted realization: they are not noticed, desired, or loved…

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Phillip: A Better Troylus

It’s written in our hearts to long for a Warrior-Lover.  We long to be worth fighting for, to be worth the struggle.  It’s also written in our hearts to be a warrior-lover for someone else – to fight passionately for our beloved, no matter the cost.  We want to be both the beloved and the warrior-lover, and in God’s story, we get to be.  He is our Warrior-Lover, who saw us as worth fighting for, even unto death.  Likewise, after experiencing such lavish love, we are called to be warrior-lovers to those around us – to show them the same love shown to us.

And yet, we don’t always feel like we have a Warrior-Lover, and often we fail to be warrior-lovers ourselves…

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Aurora: The Second Zellandine

I’m not sure if Disney intended to make Aurora a second Zellandine.  I like to think he did.  He was a master storyteller, after all; and the fact that he sets the tale in the 14th century – the century in which Perceforest was written – hints that he was at least referring to Zellandine.   

Six hundred years separate Zellandine and Aurora, and yet they are incredibly similar…

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Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”

We are finally within the last hundred years!  The Walt Disney 1959 animated version of Sleeping Beauty is a timeless classic, giving a fresh voice to the Sleeping Beloved characters.  Disney masterfully crafted the fairy tale into something unique; and yet, the story remained true to its nature…    

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