You either love M. Night Shyamalan or you hate him. Though the nation was a fan of his 1999 film The Sixth Sense, the movies that followed—Unbreakable, Signs, The Village—were met with mixed or negative reviews. Some folks like me, however, have become diehard Shyamalan fans. His latest movie, Lady in the Water, continues the love-hate tradition. Though it did poorly at the box office, I love it because it teaches an important truth about the story God is telling.

A Mythical Story

Lady in the Water came to theaters last August and is now available on DVD. Not a movie for young children, its plot was nevertheless created by Shyamalan as an on-going bedtime story for his children. In the movie, a magical world of water nymphs exists alongside the real world. From this world a messenger comes to meet a man who, upon gazing at her, will receive an enlightenment and clarity of thought which will allow him to write a book that will change the world for good. Though she accomplishes her mission, the nymph or “narf” becomes stuck in our world, stalked by a wolfish creature, and in desperate need of getting home lest her own world suffer from her absence. She must have human help in order to get home.

This help comes in the form of a janitor with healing powers, a boy who reads secrets of the universe in cereal boxes, an elderly woman whose “party life” daughter must translate her ancient story that’s happening right now, a bodybuilder hero who trains only one side of his body, and many others, all tenants of the same six-floor apartment building.

The key moment in the story occurs when all seems lost and events are becoming too bizarre to believe. At a moment of hesitation, one of the characters cries out something like, “There are times in life when we must decide to believe that some stories are true.”

The Real Story

I couldn’t agree more. Of all the stories in the world, fairy tales are among the truest, not because they really happened, but because they point to the magical story that did. The most amazing book I’ve read in the last 10 years is a little book by John Eldredge called Epic. In it he argues that all the really great stories, the ones we love most, are powerful because they are patterned after the great epic story God is telling—the story of which we are all a part. The pattern is simple:

• Once there was a magical kingdom of beauty, goodness, and love.

• Then an evil enemy rose to power and brought darkness through betrayal.

• Now the forces of good war against the forces of evil.

• Out of this conflict a hero arises to put an end to the powers of death and darkness.

• And some day all goodness will be restored.

The parallels to reality are easy to see:

• The magical kingdom is God’s creation.

• The evil enemy is Satan who tempted Adam and Eve to betrayal.

• The war is the story of God working to redeem humanity since the fall.

• The hero is Christ who has dealt the first blow against Satan and will deal more in days to come.

• The restoration of the kingdom is the new Heaven and earth for which we eagerly wait.

The reason, says Eldredge, that all the great storytellers (even the non-Christian ones) are ultimately telling the one great story is because God has “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Shyamalan follows the pattern well in Lady in the Water:

• A divine (magical) creature comes into our world from a heavenly one.

• She brings a message that will bring salvation to all mankind.

• Her human disciples help her to accomplish her ministry.

• Then she literally ascends on eagle’s wings back to her own world.

The vast difference between Christianity and fairy tales for many people is that they desperately wish for fairy tale lives but consider Christianity lifeless and dull (and this is true of many who believe as well as those who don’t). Wonder, magic, beauty, and joy—these qualities for which we long in life—are those people see evident in fairy tales but missing from religion.

What we need to remember for ourselves as well as for our outreach to others is that Christianity is not, at first, a series of theological principles. It is a story. We need both to hear for ourselves and tell others about that story with all the beauty, joy, and magical wonder of hearing or telling a fairy tale—and more so, for this is the fairy tale that came true. “Once upon a time” is the life you and I are living right now. |L

Dr. Charlie Starr teaches English, Humanities, and Film at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells