Ah, the fun of watching Lumière the candelabra and Cogsworth the clock welcome Belle into the home of the Beast, of watching all the housewares join together singing “Be Our Guest,” hearing Belle sing delicately and beautifully, and watching the comic interplay of Gaston and his silly sidekick. The theme of the entire film is “The most beautiful love story ever told.”
The more I think about it the more I agree. It definitely portrays well the most beautiful love story ever told.
Belle, the beautiful daughter of Maurice, an eccentric inventor who doesn’t quite fit in his society, finds herself a prisoner in the home of the Beast because she lays down her life to free her father from the Beast’s imprisonment. Everything about the Beast terrifies her. In fact, the Beast has terrified the locals for years, who really don’t even know what he looks like, but they imagine him to be something only worthy of killing. It is reminiscent of the way the kids envisioned Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The story is a great picture of how we view people we don’t know and who seem very different from ourselves. In today’s world, with the great fear associated with Muslim fundamentalism and terrorism, it is often the way we view any Muslim. They look different, talk differently, eat differently, worship differently, and live differently. We don’t understand them or know them and therefore we fear them.
As Belle lives in the Beast’s home – in his culture – she begins to see him for who he is. She begins to find him less a Beast and more a friend. Then, as she learns more about him and allows herself to be more a part of his culture, she even finds herself falling in love with him. 
The penultimate moment comes when she does fully fall in love with him and we see the transforming power of Love.
I don’t know how it happens, but as we follow Jesus’ command to go and make disciples in all the nations, and as we uphold our covenant with God to be a blessing to all the nations, it seems that we and nations are transformed by the amazing power of Love, God’s unconditional love demonstrated at the Cross. When we lay down our lives, just as Belle did for her father, we may find ourselves in frightening places and new cultures with different ways of living, but the end result is that we find those we once considered to be enemies or beasts to be friends and family. In fact, as Jesus makes them new creations, just as Belle’s love did for the Beast, we find that we are united in the Blood of Christ, truly blood relatives. We live the most beautiful love story ever told.
The closer we get to people – where they eat, live, love – the easier we will find it to be to identify with, and love, them. We must go to people’s “homes” to truly demonstrate love. We must share their tears, fears, joys, food, time, and culture to know and show love for them. God demonstrated this so well by putting on our skin and coming to earth to save us. Now, as Christians called to be His representatives, we must put on the others’ “skin” – their culture – and live our lives to serve them in the name of Jesus. This is missional living. Life lived with the purpose of loving God and loving others in such a way that they see the love of God in and through us. This can’t be done when we don’t go where people are. And we can’t do this for “the nations” without going there. Jesus demonstrated this, and so did Belle.
