Seeing the Gospel in Disney's Frozen.

Lately I have been repeatedly watching clips of  Disney's Frozen with my daughters. They love the music , the trolls, the princesses. I love the story. I love the character of Elsa. She really speaks to me and I suspect that many people identify with her tragic figure. I have read so many different theories about the themes this movie supports. I really think, like anything else, that the story interacts with its viewers to create different themes for different people. What do I see? I see it pointing us to the gospel.

Elsa is the firstborn princess of the king and queen of Arendelle and she is a beloved big sister to the carefree, life loving Anna. But something is different about Elsa. She was born with magical powers, a curse that gives her the ability to create snow and ice. In her childhood she and Anna spend hours playing in the winter wonderland Elsa has created. Then something goes tragically wrong when Elsa accidently strikes Anna’s head with her icy blast. The king and queen rush Anna to the mythical trolls, deep in the forest, for healing. They are able to manipulate her memory so that she doesn’t remember her big sister’s powers. The family returns home, vowing to close the gates to their palace until Elsa has learned to control her powers. So begins her life of solitude and fear. She loves her little sister and her parents with all her heart. She loves them so much that she constantly fears she will hurt them. She shuts her door on her little sister. She cannot go out and play with her, and when their parents die she cannot even open the door to comfort her and share in her grief. She is trapped in an icy storm of fear, grief, and loss. Not only has she lost her parents, she has lost the only people who helped her and loved her even in the midst of her struggle to control her powers.

So passes the beginning of Elsa’s life. She is wrapped in fear and isolation. Finally, though, her powers are revealed in a confrontation with Anna at her coronation. She flees to the mountain and sings the award-winning song “Let It Go.” What a beautiful song. We all identify with her song because she finally casts aside her constraints, decides to stop being the “good girl”, and lets her powers go. She finishes her song in an enormous icy tower, her hair down, and her arms reached up to the sky. She is free. Or so it seems. Anna arrives to persuade her to go home, promising her she will be by her side. Elsa’s fear at her powers and her inability to control them begins to swirl and she realizes she will never escape the storm inside of her. She cannot be free.  In her fear and anger she accidently strikes her sister in the heart with a blast of ice. Anna is surely going to die and her sister will be trapped in her icy tower of fear forever.

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. If it did, Elsa, Anna, and Arendelle would have been doomed. Instead they both return to Arendelle and events lead to a final crux: Anna needs an act of true love to save her, and Elsa is at the same time about to be killed by an imposter trying to take over her kingdom, Hans. Instead of waiting for her true love’s kiss, though, Anna rushes to protect her sister, knowing it will mean her death. She stands in front of her sister and just as Hans’ sword strikes, she turns to ice. Her true love’s sacrifice on behalf of her sister saved her life. Elsa’s grief at the thought of losing her precious little sister forever finally breaks through her fear. Her release and embrace of her powers couldn’t free her from her inner storm, but love could; love did. She realized that love conquers all.

The story hinges on Anna’s sacrifice. We all love Elsa. We love her when she casts aside her constraints on the mountain, declaring her freedom. But don’t we love her more when she is grieving for her sister? Don’t we love her more when she finally lets love conquer her fear? Do we know that type of love?

I think about my own life and I know that my past is anything but harmonious. I had a brief period of time in my childhood when I was happy, like Elsa. But I went through a tumultuous period of rebellion and at some point I thought I was free. What I didn’t understand was my craving for love. I found it at the cross. I found it in a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice of love. I found it in the Heavenly Father who loves me so much that he sent his son to die for me.

Casting off the contrived expectations and constraints of society doesn’t make us free. We cannot escape our inner turmoil. Declaring that we are free doesn’t make us so. Love is the only thing that sets us free. It is the only thing that embraces us; the Father’s love is the only thing that holds us even when we don’t want to be held. It is a ceaseless, relentless, forgiving love that finds us wherever we are. It finds us on the mountaintops, it finds us in the dungeons. It finds us and it brings us home.

Elsa thought she was free but her self-empowerment didn’t last. She wasn’t free until she realized the depth of her love for her sister. We need to let that type of love in and we need to pass it along. We can’t do it, though, without first embracing the cross and the depth and breadth of the love our Father has for us. If we don’t understand that, we will never be free.