In our family, discussion of the personal angst of the Disney princesses comes up occasionally:
Why is my reflection someone I don’t know?
Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I’ve tried!
If I were truly to be myself, I would break my family’s heart!
Don’t get me wrong – we’re big fans. We’ve been to Disneyland three times in the last few years. We love the princesses. Book-loving Belle is a personal favorite. I’m also partial to Rapunzel’s hilarious romantic interest, Flynn.
There has, however, been a running theme in the princess movies since Little Mermaid, Ariel:
- How do I become who I really am?
- Hardly anybody, including my parents, understands the real me!
And the charmingly rhymed
- I need to be the me I was meant to be!
So what is the underlying answer in all of these stories? Does finding the me I was meant to be require a crisis? Must our journey to self-realization plow straight through family relationships?
I’ve been thinking about this while looking into grapevine grafting. It’s the same issue, really.
Winegrowers don’t just stick young vine plants or cuttings in the ground, water, then harvest grapes in three years. These days, almost all vines are grafted:
- A strong, phylloxera-resistant rootstock is selected.
- A particular variety of wine grape cutting (scion) compatible with the rootstock is selected. These are very carefully treated for critters and disease, then screened before being made available for grafting.
- Particular kinds of cuts are made in rootstock and scion so that the two can be fitted together
- then bound with tape, slipped into a sleeve, and planted as soon as possible in the spring.
Shiloh Vineyard, near Santa Rosa. 2 yr old vines in sleeves.
This is, of course, the edited version of a meticulous, time-consuming process.
In the loving, intense conversation Jesus has with His disciples just before His death, He explains:
I am the true vine –
strong, resilient, ready to provide all you need for great fruit.
You are already clean (disease-free) because of the word I’ve spoken to you.
Clean and prepared, compatible now with Me.
My Father is glorified when you bear much fruit.
I love the world. Your work is to love it, too, through the gospel.
There is something else.
The vine does not receive any fundamental changes in its makeup from the rootstock. Zinfandel grapevines, for instance, retain all of their zinfandel characteristics. What the scion does receive from the rootstock is vigor. A strong rootstock helps the vine use the water and minerals drawn up from the soil. The result is a healthy amount of foliage (canopy) and balanced fruit – for each individual vine.
There is no way to become the True Me we were meant to be away from the True Vine. Our single, universal defining characteristic is that we’re all redeemed. Everything else is the invigorating power of the Holy Spirit at work on the redeemed “me.”
So, let’s teach this to our little Mulans and Ariels and Flynns: we will be the me we were meant to be only if we are bound to the life-giving rootstock of Jesus Christ – reflecting Him.