Sunday, September 22, 2013

From Stone to Flesh

Hello again! I'll skip right past the part where I've been away from here for months and go straight into today's story. Get excited because it's a story of zombies...and the Gospel. Hold up, you say. What could zombies possibly have to do with the Gospel? I'm coming to that, but first some background.

A few months ago, I checked out Warm Bodies from the library. Warm Bodies is pretty much Romeo and Juliet with zombies. Before I continue, check out the trailer if you haven't seen the movie:


Here we meet R, who has sadly succumbed to an un-deadly zombie virus and now enjoys eating brains. R spends his days shuffling around aimlessly yet wondering if there's more to un-life until one fateful day he meets Julie, our girl-next-door zombie slayer. While you'd expect R to immediately bash Julie's pretty little head in and get to snacking, seeing the life, light, and beauty radiating from her sparks something deep inside him. He's not even alive, but he's falling in love, and that begins a transformation in his heart that makes him more and more human and may even change his entire world (I won't give away the ending because you should watch it!).

So here I am watching this movie, minding my own business, when I am blindsided by the biblical truth in this concept. I'm watching R's transformation from un-death to life, and this verse from Ezekiel pops into my head:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put in you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. -Ezekiel 36:26

I'm completely oversimplifying this, but it's love that causes R's dead heart to begin beating again, and it's the love of Christ that brought me from death to new life. The more R learns to love, the more alive he becomes just as the more I allow Jesus to transform my heart to be more like His, the more my heart looks like His. And just as R's transformation starts an epidemic zombie love fest, so the transformation Jesus has had in my life should be evident and should make others want to give Him their hearts too.

The real conviction I got from this movie was that while I gave my heart to Christ long ago, there are days when I feel like I slip back into zombie mode and forget that spreading His love is my purpose. How cool is it that this reminder came from a zombie romance movie?! But that's my God. He knows how to get through to this little nerd girl. Oh, Lord, continue to daily take my heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh that I might show the world Your love. You must become greater, Jesus, and I must become less (John 3:30).