The Gospel According to Pinocchio (Part Three)

If you didn't read Part One and Two, please read those first.

When Pinocchio found the bottle with the message in it, it told him the lengths to which his father had gone in order to rescue his disobedient child. Remember the first time you were faced with Grace? When you saw the sacrifice made for you when you were no more deserving of it than a cockroach deserves to eat from the table of a King? Pinocchio began his choosing at that point. He could have turned his back on the sacrifice made by his father and returned to Pleasure Island. In doing so, he would have gone to the salt mines.

Many do the same thing. They are faced with Christ’s sacrificial death for us and turn their back, returning to the games of sin. Though it grieves the Father, He has given them their free will and they go to Hell of their own choosing. However, Pinocchio did not do that. Instead, he began to think of his father and came to the point where he was willing to go back to him on account of the sacrifice he had made. He swam into the mouth of the whale, facing death for his father. I find it interesting that his conscience was left outside. The quest for the Father becomes such a strong pull that a conscience is overshadowed by the Spirit’s wooing.

The time in the belly of the whale was a time of reunion with his father, but Pinocchio had not yet found life. He wanted to save himself in his own way. His efforts only saved him from one peril, the whale’s belly, and plunged him into another, the ocean and certain death.

Death is essential to love. God loved so He gave His Son. Christ loves so He died for us. We must love so much that we give our lives completely to God. Geppetto found Pinocchio’s lifeless form and wept. God knows that we must come to the point of death in order to love Him which is what He desires, but He loves us so much that it grieves Him to see us suffer even to that extent.

Geppetto took Pinocchio home. Withe the Blue Fairy's return and granting of life to him, the parallel to our own salvation is complete. The Holy Spirit sees that we die to sin and gives us spiritual life. Note that Pinocchio never reached school. Though we can try to attain to the Law, it is impossible in our depraved state. We will never measure up.

Do you remember when you woke from that death to see your home? And to see the Father? No mention was made of Pinocchio’s disobedience. He was more than just a changed Pinocchio with a blotted out past. He was new! The new Pinocchio had done no wrong. He was completely new with no past. It was as if his past rejection of his father had never happened. And so are we—new creatures in Christ Jesus with none of the old past hanging on to us.

Perhaps the best part of the story is that Jiminy Cricket moved on. When we are in a constant relationship of love with our Father, we no longer need a conscience or the Law. The Spirit dwells within us and writes His Law on our hearts and we are free— free from the Law, free from sin and free to love our Father. So, God’s wish—for fellowship with His creation—really can come true.

I'd love to hear your story of Grace. Care to share?