The story of Beauty and the Beast is truly a tale as old as time, because it has been retold in a variety of versions throughout most cultures across the history of storytelling. Beauty and the Beast is the story of a young maiden and a monster — one of the most popular structures of many fairy tales.
Beauty and the Beast is a classic fairy tale — a dark fairy tale, actually — but a fairy tale with all of the right characters, plot development, and in the end, they all live happily ever after. Most children today know this story. They have seen some or multiple versions on their screens, and many of them know the songs.
Here is the basic breakdown: the two main characters are a young woman named Belle — who is the beauty in this story, and a young prince who has lost his humanity because of a curse — and he now paces his castle like a Beast.
Belle finds herself imprisoned in the Beast’s castle, after sacrificing herself for her father’s freedom. The residents of the castle, who had been transformed into household objects, are certain that Belle can save them from their fate. Mrs. Potts, the teapot, along with her son, Chip, Lumiere the candelabra, and Cogsworth, the clock — lead the charge to guide the Beast’s behavior. They hope to convince Belle that the Beast is not as horrible as his outward appearance would suggest.
Amazing, despite the Beast’s rage, Belle patiently loves and cares for him, carrying him on her horse back to the castle after he was attacked by wolves. She tends to his wounds, recites Shakespeare to him, and approaches him with a new tenderness.
Author Margaret Pope writes:
“Such undeserved kindness completely undoes the Beast, as grace often does, and he is unsure of how to respond.” — Margaret Pope
He eventually allows himself to accept the love Belle offers him, and his demeanor completely changes. This inward change ultimately leads to an outward change once the spell is broken, and the Beast and all of the residents of the castle are transformed back into their human form. And, they all live happily ever after!
But let’s dive a little deeper to find even more application of this tale to our lives today. We need to start by admitting that we are all much more like the Beast than we are like Belle. We have our mean, selfish, nasty, monstrous moments. We can be arrogant and unkind. We can be pretty ugly when we are not behaving as our best selves. And we know that the ugly on the inside can be seen on the outside. So there is a reason for that ugly on the inside. Could it be the absence of pure, unconditional love?
And then along comes something from outside of us — and offers us something we cannot do for ourselves. Belle shows up and loves the Beast, which breaks the power of the curse on the Beast and the castle, just as God sets us free and removes the Beastly part of us by loving us into better behavior. Belle didn’t wait for the Beast to change, and then decide to love him, the Beast is changed when he is loved. Belle went first with the Beast, and God goes first with all of us.
You know how it often is when two people are trying to rectify or resolve a conflict — both people know that they were wrong, they both know they need to own up to the problem, and apologize and do better, but no one wants to go first.
God has no problem going first. I love this passage in the book of I John in the New Testament:
“We are going to love — love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. God loved us first.” — I John 4:19
What a beautiful description of the cycle of love. We can love, because we have been loved by God. God went first. God loved us first.
When I began my career as a teacher, someone along the way advised me to respect my students first. Unconditionally. As they were walking into my room for the first time. And guess what? That was brilliant advice. I went first. I respected first, and of course, it was far easier for them to respect me back. I then tried to go first more often after I saw the success with that. I tried to build a bridge to them first. Choose to be the patient, calm one first. Well — I am still working on that one. But the powerful example of God loving us undeservingly, and often without reason, is a lesson for all of us. Going first isn’t weakness, it’s strength. It’s what God does.
Beauty and the Beast is a spiritual story. It is a story about love, sacrifice and redemption. The Beast is a beast because of his poor choices. When he encounters real love and sacrifice, he understands his own folly and, most importantly, learns to sacrifice himself for others. He is, symbolically and literally, reborn.
Belle is clearly the personification of grace — offering unconditional, undeserved love. Just like God does to each one of us. God sees the best of each of us, no matter how much we are like the Beast. Somehow, Belle did the same thing. She saw past the outward form of the Beast and found something on the inside that no one else could see. And then being with Belle, accepting her love, changed the Beast. That is the story of grace.
And that leads me to my final point. Let’s talk about us. We like that. Some people don’t believe that people can change. I do believe that people can change. I think whether we want to admit it or not, we have all gone through several transformations in our lives. We have all experienced phases of our lives when we needed to turn our lives around, where we had gotten off track, but we were eventually able to bend, to learn, to grow, to change. We probably didn’t really want to change, but deep down, we knew it was needed. We didn’t want to keep repeating unhealthy patterns. We didn’t want to be locked in to a bleak future. We could see that others around us were suffering, like the residents of the castle for the Beast.
Thank God we have God. I believe it’s a whole lot easier to change when we ask God for help. God can help us to change. God’s love can soften us, and quiet our fears. God’s love can change our hearts, help us to see things differently, and move us away from our beastly selves, and closer to the grace of Belle.
Love changes us. Love heals us. Love never fails. It’s a tale as old as time. Amen.
Adam Wilde writes these powerful words:
“Love changes and helps us move forward in life. It often helps us become the people we’ve always wanted to be and move away from the people we were. Love transforms us in the best of ways, allowing us only to look back on a memory of our former self.” — Adam Wilde
That is the power of love. And that, my friends, is the tale as old as time.
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