Our writing into the day on November 8th was inspired by the poem, Hazel tells Laverne by Kathryn Machan. It gives an interesting twist on the classic fairytale of the princess and the frog. In the original, the young maiden listens to the frog, kisses him, and discovers he truly is a handsome prince. This story plays out another girl's encounter with such a frog, who, at the very inquiry of a kiss from her, accuses him of being a "little green pervert" and promptly flushes him down the toilet. We all laugh because we see the sad irony running beneath it and the great mistake the princess is making. But what if we are doing that same thing?
When Jesus came to earth and took on human flesh, he chose not to come as one physically attractive or appealing. Despite all the murals of Jesus with a glowing halo, or the stained glass window protrayals of him, on the outside he was just another ordinary looking carpenter. The Bible says this of him, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." This is the same Jesus "through whom and for whom all things were created," who is the "king of kings and lord of lords." He was, in a sense, a prince in a frog's body. In the same way that the little frog promised the girl royalty, so Jesus promised everlasting life to those that would accept him. He doesn't promise an easy life devoid of problems, but he does offer life "to the fullest," along with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control," and on the list goes. But the greatest promise of all is that of God's presence, that he will never leave us nor forsake us, that he will help us through all the troubles that come our way, and that we will have the privledge to spend forever with him. Like the girl in the poem, often times we are frightened away by the froggy appearance that we immediately flush him down the toilet, not realizing the authentic truth to the promise that we flushed away with him.
Lydia,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the link you made between the poem and Jesus! I think it was really insightful. In fact, I think the whole message of your post was very insightful! Really good post!
Hey Lydia! I liked your post a lot. You made a really good connection with theh frog prince and Jesus... That is something I would never have thought of. One thing I thought was interesting is when you said that Hazel makes a mistake. But how do we know it was a mistake? She was just going against society for her own wellness maybe?
ReplyDeleteHi Lydia,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post. I also thought it was interesting when you compared Jesus as being a prince in a frog's body (I never thought of making this connection and it blew my mind how you were able to come up with it). Than you stated "Like the girl in the poem, often times we are frightened away by the froggy appearance that we immediately flush him down the toilet". This part gave me insight and I realized that many people ignore or totally flush the frog/truth.