Not only an entertainment.
Watched the famous Japanese period drama time-travel fantasy saga
"Inuyasha" (animation version & 4 movies)
twice, many years apart.
Facing and overcoming the demon's evil cunning plots, temptations, illustions
which intended to cause doubts, fear, anger, hatre,
the leading female character Kagome,
relies on her ability to distinguish what is right and wrong,
sense of justice / righteousness,
the faith in victory for the justice & truth,
the love and faith/trust in family, friends, loved ones,
her pure heart, her faith, hope, love.
(In that story, many parties tried to snatch the enchanted jewel,
which is the combination of various virtues or power of human souls:
love, family/friendship, bravery, wisdom )
It (and our heart)...
~ is powerful; can be whole and can be shattered.
~ might be tainted/polluted, it can be purified.
Devil/demons often try to fight against God and try to oppress the Truth.
Whenever we get nearer to the Truth,
devils often try to to destroy/undermine our lives.
In English, there is a saying "heart of gold".
Golden heart?
A kind considerate loving heart.
The beauty of real gold...
pure, true, precious, shinny.
Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart.
Steel takes many many strokes to be refined and strenghtened.
When faced with adversities, many people easily cry out how poorly they are, even blaming God.
Maybe now we can try to see, life is like a do-jo, a place to practise a place for tests and examinations.
Light and darkness is often used as allegories for good and evil or truth and lie.
In Bible, we are told to shine and lit up the world.(Matthew 5:14-16)
There are simile and metaphor that "churches" are like well-lit lamp stands.
(and our bodies are temples)
There are crown of glory, crown of joy, crown of hope, crown of righteousness
Also we are told that we will get crown of glory.
Loving our God, following HIS teaching,
Loving our people,
let God and the Holy Spirit be with us,
facing and overcoming adversity/temptations/tests,
eventually we will get the crown of glory.
crown of light....
halo?
Getting it? How?
Given by God as reward?
Is it possible that
we eventually emit from ourselves from our heart the light?
In darkness, good to have light.
To find light?
The ability to see light?
Of course we can ask GOD to shine His light on us.
Yet, GOD also asked us to shine!
The light of hope,
The light of joy,
The light of love,
the light of truth,
the light of human souls,
the light of holyness...
The fruits of the Holy Spirit are:
love,
joy (gladness),
peace,
patience (an even temper, forbearance),
kindness,
goodness(benevolence),
faithfulness,
gentleness (meekness, humility),
self-control (self-restraint, continence).
(ref: Galatians5:22-23)
When we bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
be near to God, be like God,
we will have crown of glory ,
we will have light...
(note: in the story of Inuyasha,
the author designed the leading female character
to have the ability to sense/see the presence of the enchanted jewel,
and, the ability to purify it.
She also learned later in the story
how to merge tiny pieces of it into bigger ones. )
When faced with
temptations and trials,
will we become more like
heirs of GOD,
or,
puppets of devil?
AND, in the story, felt into a trap by the evil enemy,
Kagome was lost in a virtual reality typical daily life,
forgetting all about the stuff with Inuyasha,
the jewel and the friends, her mission and role.
She sensed vaguely something is not right.
She had to kept asking "who am I?"
Luckily with some help,
she remembered and woke up to her identity.
YES.
amidst temptation and plots to distract us or fool us ...
let us remember / relearn / find out
our true identities.
BTW,
Kagome's mother named her after 6 point star.
Kagome's previous life Kikyou means 5 point star.
And people know God's chosen people in Israel often show 6 point star - the star of David.
PS.
In our world,
there are people trying to share/teach/inspire us what and how-tos.
Not just the traditional ways of family teaching, textbooks or church sermons.
More likely , in stories, fictions, books, songs, TV, animations, movies, etc.
They might be under the cover of fantasy, sci-fi,
even magic or popular occult-like elements, etc.
For example,
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis.
That one has Christianity in it.
Media and outward elements is just something to get people's notice and interest.
Animation can be used to teach serious history, philosophy and Bible.
BTW, even "Cardcaptor Sakura" has interesting things in it.
