Now, I promise there will be no senseless bashing of Twilight. Stephanie Meyer has made many fans of her work, and not without reason. It wouldn’t be productive to sit here and pick apart Twilight just because it’s particular genre is… different. (Vampires!) However, it would be equally unproductive not to think critically about a story that is both entrenched in our conscious and reflective of our hearts and desires.
It’s clear that the real draw to Twilight is the relational aspect of its storyline – it’s a love story! The fact that Edward is a vampire is really just a plot device to make the romance more interesting. Because he never dies, he has to deal with the possibility of losing Bella somewhere in the future. Because Edward could kill her at any moment, Bella has to decide to trust Edward with her life. Because nobody knows what Edward is, Edward has to trust Bella to keep his family’s secret. Ah, love.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, we have a long list of characteristics of “true love.” An excerpt:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
The fact that we are able to engage in relationships with one another and to love one another attests to the fact that we are made in God’s image –God is constantly in relationship with Himself! He created us in such a way that our relationships with one another, when submitted to His authority and done in a godly way, reflect His eternal coexistence as Trinity. When we love one another selflessly, we reflect part of the glory of God. Edward and Bella make huge sacrifices for one another, as well as their friends and family. Bella moved to Forks for very selfless reasons. For her safety, Edward tries to not get involved with Bella (but man, she just smells so good…). The Cullens drop everything to keep Bella’s family safe when they are threatened, not “insisting their own way.”
We can see how these actions reflect the character of God in his relentless love for His children: He is selfless, protective, and did drop everything for our salvation [Phil 2:5-11; Ps 56:8, 40:11].
However, the question we need to ask ourselves is whether Bella and Edward are reflecting God’s image to one another, or replacing Him.
We are creatures, meant to find everything we need in our creator. Colossians talks about finding wholeness in Christ: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” [Col 1:17-18] We are meant to find security and rest in what God has done on the cross for us to bring us to a relationship with him. We are meant to find community with other believers in the body of Christ. We are meant to find freedom in what God has purchased for us.
When we try to find these things in a romantic relationship, it will fall apart. We start to put the other person in a position where they take the place of God in our lives. We were not made to replace God, but to reflect Him.
- How do Edward and Bella reflect God’s unrelenting love for his children? (and they do, in lots of ways!)
- How do Edward and Bella take the place of God in each other’s lives? The best way to answer this question is to first consider the place God is meant to have in our lives – where do we turn when things go wrong? Where do we find our security? And do E and B find these things in each other, or in their Creator?
What do y’all think?
