The Lion King and the Deep Story of Life #2

PREVIOUSLY ON ‘THE LION KING’:

Mufasa shows Simba the whole of the Pridelands and tells him that “everywhere the light touches” will be his. But he warns him never to go out of their kingdom, into the shadowlands. Scar wants Simba dead, and he tempts him – telling him about the Elephant Graveyard, and that only the bravest lions go there. Simba takes Nala, lies to his parents and they run away into the graveyard, where they are attacked by Scar’s hyenas, and are about to be killed when Mufasa bursts in, overpowers the hyenas and generally saves the day like the legend that he is. (This is an EPIC scene which we’ll come back to later on…)

So here we are – we’re only interested up to 1:35 – “We’re pals right?” – “Right.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw45nBcWNbQ

When we were watching this scene recently there were genuinely audible sighs coming from my mates, possibly even from me. In the middle of the film, this scene always just hits me right in the guts, but at the same time it’s beautiful. Why?

Simba steps in his Dad’s paw-print and realises how small he is. And I know that feeling. So often we think we’re big enough and brave enough and strong enough to deal with everything by ourselves – we’re independent people, we don’t need help – and then the moment comes when we lose control, when it starts to turn sour, when there’s nothing we can do and nothing we can say… And we look down at our little paw-print and realise that we’re just not big enough. But sometimes - if we look closer - we can see, like Simba does, that our Dad is a lot bigger.

And then Mufasa looks at his child and says, “Simba, you deliberately disobeyed me.” And he knows it’s true. “And what’s worse, you put Nala in danger.” And he knows that’s true too. And we know that feeling, don’t we? When you don’t want to look at anyone and there’s a cold lump in your chest because you know it was wrong, and you know it hurt people. And there’s nothing you can say you’ve just got to wait for, “I forgive you.” You’ve just got to hope for “I still love you.”

And Simba says, “But you’re not scared of anything!” – and the King replies - “I was today. I thought I might lose you.” This bit is so much truer than we know. Mufasa is more powerful than anyone else, he rules in his kingdom. But because he is a good father, he cannot control his son. Because he’s a good father he doesn’t force Simba to stay in the cave, he doesn’t  build huge walls to keep him in, he doesn’t put an electric tag around his ankle. He lets his son be free. He makes obedience a choice. And because he loves him enough to make him free, the mighty King is vulnerable to this little cub. He is scared, because for all his strength, all his power, he knows that some day he might lose his little boy. And when his little boy deliberately disobeys him, when he runs away, when he risks his life – it breaks his father’s heart. And I believe that God loves us enough to set us free, and it breaks his heart that he might lose us. The Creator of the Universe is our Dad; and he sits at the window and weeps, and waits, and hopes that some day we’ll come home.

But somehow, despite all the pain, all the heartbreak; despite all the times we put Nala in danger and she really does get hurt – our Dad, the mighty King, still smiles when he looks at us, and laughs and plays with us like the best dads do with their kids. And when we draw up close to him, and ask: “We’re pals right?” He always says, in a voice too strong and warm to doubt: “Right.”