Update (06-02-2012): Hi, I wrote this several years ago. I just wanted to say that I am aware that using a character/film such as Edward Scissorhands in such a way might seem odd or incomprehensible. This isn't to be taken too seriously, just something to consider. It was an idea that came to me while thinking a lot about it and I found it interesting enough to write (or should I say 'type' it down). Thanks and God bless. :)
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One of my favorite films growing up was "Edward Scissorhands." I always liked the film and never got tired of watching it. I still like the film (apart from the bad language and sexual indecency). I often think of how different films can end up having a strong relation to Jesus and His Message without probably meaning to. One of these films that I recently thought about is "Edward Scissorhands."
Edward Scissorhands is a film directed by Tim Burton (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Batman I & II and Sleepy Hallow amongst other films). I've always thought that Tim Burton is very talented. He's very imaginative and creative. He has a knack for creating things that look dark, but he's imaginative and creative nonetheless (at least in my opinion). And, I personally think that Edward Scissorhands is very well made, including the music and acting (except for the bad parts, of course).
The story of the film is this: An elderly woman is in her home telling her granddaughter a bedtime story. It's snowing outside. The story she tells is this: An elderly man, who lives in a dark and strange castle-like mansion, creates a robot of a man to be fully man. He reads to him and enlightens him. However, the elderly man dies of a heart attack before he ever finished his creation. Apparently, no one knows of the man's creation and this creation, named Edward, continues to live in the mansion. He's a young man, but never seems to age. His unfinished self consists of a full body, apart from regular hands. Instead, he has scissors for hands. His hair is not normal, it is pitch black and wild looking. He wears a black leather outfit as he was never fitted into regular clothes by the elderly man. The most amazing part of this creation, however, is that he has a heart - a big heart. He is respectful, sweet, kind and giving. He seems like the epitome of what every man should be like. However, as we learn later in the film, he has the emotional state of a child. He is naive in many ways. He still doesn't understand a lot of things - especially the way the outside world works. And, of course, he looks strange. One day, an Avon lady who lives and works in residential area near the mansion, decides to actually go over to this abandoned mansion after a string of rejections of the products she's selling. This lady is as nice as can be. She meets Edward, who's skiddish at first. She realizes that he's alone and that he has scars all over his face because of his scissor hands. She feels for him and decides to take him back with her to stay with her family. Edward is delighted and excited by all the sights he sees in this neighborhood. This neighborhood is very suburban and is full of pasty colored houses, green laws and green bushes. It always seems to be bright and sunshiny. Edward is obviously odd to everyone, but he is a welcome addition to everyone in the neighborhood (apart from the lady that likes to play her organ who thinks he some kind of devil and that everyone's being fooled by him). Edward instantly becomes captivated by the lady's teenage daughter even before he officially meets her. Throughout the film, the viewer can notice that he is very much in love with her though he never pursues his interest in her further than what he feels in his heart. He does this probably out of respect for the fact that she has a boyfriend and possibly other reasons as well. The lady's teenage daughter is a little freaked out by him at first, but gradually begins to see beauty in him. She slowly becomes intrigued by him and attracted to his loveliness, much to the chagrin of her obnoxious boyfriend. There are also certain humorous situations in the film because of Edward's "newness" to this outside world. But, he still manages to somehow get by. One of the reasons he does so is because he has an obvious talent for design. He seems to be as creative as his creator. We see the evidence for this first by his trimming and design of the bushes around the neighborhood, then in the "hairstyling" of the neighborhood dogs and then finally in the hairstyling of neighborhood ladies. There is one promiscuous woman in the neighborhood is particularly attracted to Edward and attempts to seduce him. When Edward is not interested, she later acts as if she had been practically molested by Edward. The lady that took Edward in gets the idea that Edward can open up his own hair salon, make money and be set. However, it doesn't work out that way because, according to the bank, Edward doesn't even exist (since he has no birth certificate, bank account and etc.). So, he's been having some difficulties, but what comes next is the first major blow. The boyfriend of the lady's daughter comes up with a corrupt plan to break into his own dad's house in order to try and steal some of the money from the security room inside the house. He gets his friends involved along with the lady's daughter and Edward. The plan backfires, however, and Edward gets locked inside the security room when the alarm goes off. It turns out that was the boyfriend's plan all along, much to the chagrin of the lady's daughter. Everyone that doesn't know any better thinks that Edward purposely broke into the house in order to steal money for himself. The lady's daughter thinks that Edward didn't know what was going on and became the victim of an unfortunate situation. However, he reveals to her that he did know what was really going on, but he went through it all anyway simply because she asked him to do it. What comes after that is the second biggest blow. When Edward sees the lady's daughter and her boyfriend outside together, he becomes so upset that he ends up scratching up the house with his scissor hands (which he still has). Afterwards, he feels very bad about it, but the family forgives him. It turns out that the lady's daughter and her boyfriend were actually arguing and the girl basically broke up with him. Edward didn't know this. It's around this time that Edward starts to become looked upon as being a strange, yet welcome addition to the neighborhood to becoming a neighborhood problem. Who they are starts to clash with who Edward with dramatically negative results. Towards the end of the film, the ex-boyfriend of the lady's daughter, out of anger and humiliation, comes to see the lady's daughter. Edward happens to be outside designing a huge block of ice to look like an angel (it's Christmastime). The lady's daughter goes outside and starts dancing with the ice flakes falling down on her. He doesn't notice her and so he accidentally cuts her hand. The ex-boyfriend comes around and sees this, making a bigger deal out of it than it is. He pushes Edward around and yells at him to leave. Edward, freaked out by the experience, runs away. He roams throughout the neighborhood. Most everyone is inside their homes because it's night. The family starts to look around for Edward. The lady's daughter is told to stay home. Through his roaming, Edward is angry and lonely. He realizes that he doesn't fit in with this outside world and he never will. The result of this is a feeling of sadness and loneliness. Eventually, he makes his way back to the lady's house with the lady's daughter still there alone. By this point, the lady's daughter is in love with Edward and she wants to be with him. Edward knows this won't ever work very well. Both of them don't quite know how to handle this. She wants to kiss him, but Edward hesitates because he says "I can't." They almost kiss anyway, but they're interrupted by a loud noise outside. Edward notices the lady's son about to get hit by the ex-boyfriend's van because the ex-boyfriend and his buddy are drunk, and they're driving crazy. Edward runs out and pushes the son out of the way. He tries to see if the son is okay, but accidentally scratches him up in the process because of his scissor hands. The ex-boyfriend sees this and is angry. They hear the police coming and everything seems to be a mess. Upon hearing the police siren and knowing that it's getting closer, the lady's daughter is upset because she knows that they want Edward. She knows that he doesn't fit in and that everything is a mess. But, she ends up telling him to "run." So, Edward runs back to the mansion. The lady's daughter makes her way to the mansion. They are up there together, but soon comes the mad ex-boyfriend and he starts to beat Edward up. The lady's daughter attempts to help protect Edward, but even she gets knocked down by the ex-boyfriend in the process. Edward becomes so angry by the ex-boyfriend hurting the girl that he shoves his scissor hand into the ex-boyfriend's stomach. Edward keeps it in as the ex-boyfriend is backing away until the ex-boyfriend ends up falling out the window. I don't think that Edward intended for the guy to fall, but he did. The ex-boyfriend immediately dies. The girl confirms to Edward that he's dead. They don't know what to do. They very much want to be together, but by this point, Edward knows that they can't be together. The girl doesn't want it to be that way, but she realizes that they can't be together either, especially now. Edward looks at her and says, "go." But, before she does, she kisses him and whispers into his ear the words that he's always wanted to hear: "I love you." As she goes down the mansion steps, she looks for something to make it look like Edward is dead. She finds an extra scissor arm in the mansion. She goes outside to the front of the mansion where the neighborhood mob has arrived. She tells them that he's dead and shows them the arm. They believe her, including the policeman. Instead of looking for evidence, they decide to give up on their manhunt and simply accept that he's dead. They would rather forget about him all together. The story ends with the elderly lady (who we realize is the lady's daughter in old age) telling her granddaughter the conclusion of the story. The grandmother reveals that she never saw him again, but that she believes the scissor-handed man is still alive. However, she wouldn't want him to see her now as she would rather he remember her in her youth. The grandmother reveals that before Edward came down, it never snowed and afterwards it did. Then, we see Edward still up in the mansion (looking the same as before) carving designs out of blocks of ice (including a design of the lady's daughter dancing in the snow like that one time) and this somehow creates the snow that comes down on the neighborhood.
I think this story co-relates to Jesus and His coming into this world. Jesus, though far from being naive, comes into this world - a world that he doesn't belong to and doesn't fit in with. To many people, Jesus is "strange" or "odd." He's an outsider. Most people don't understand him, but because he's "nice" and a "good person" they want to accept him, as long as nothing goes beyond that. The way of this world clashes with the Way of Jesus. They don't go together because one is one way and the other is another way. It goes further than what's on the surface. Jesus says that He is a member of the God Trinity that is made up of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He claims to be God's only begotten Son and that His Way is the only way to get to God and His Kingdom of Heaven. And, if you don't go His Way, then you will be damned forever. Who Jesus is and what He says is ignored by some, scoffed by some and violently opposed by others. This is what occurs in Edward Scissorhands. The neighborhood doesn't have a problem with Edward as long as he's nice and does stuff for them. But, as soon as he starts to reject society's standards, that's when the problems start and then the people start to oppose him. The only people that love Edward in the end is the family that originally took him in (and perhaps the policeman) - before he became a "big shot" around the neighborhood. They are the only ones that ever truly loved and cared for him. They are his true friends. But, as much as they want him to be with them, even they realize that he doesn't fit in and that he needs to go back to where he came from. This is similar to what it's like for a Christian. When we come to know the LORD Jesus, we are re-born through His Spirit. We literally live because of Him and for Him. He is Life, He is Love, He is Freedom, He is Truth, He is Righteousness, He is Divine, He is Perfect, He is Heaven and He is Victorious. He is our Beloved and we are His beloved. He is the Groom and we are His Bride. He is very much in love with us and wants to be with us and we are very much in love with Him and want to be with Him. This is a very literal love experience, better than all those romances. But, still, He has to go back because this is the Will of the Father. And Jesus obeys His Father. Jesus accomplished what He came to do when He first came to us (die on the cross for everyone's sins and defeat death by rising from the dead). However, He will come back for His Bride someday, overthrow the current way of this world and reign over it with His Bride. Even though He is up in Heaven and we are down here on earth, He has sent us help in the form of the third person of the God Trinity called the Holy Spirit. We are together in Spirit. Only those that have accepted Him, let Him come inside of them to live within them and put their trust in Him know what it's like. Only they truly know who Jesus is, and therefore God, and understand Him. The rest of the world doesn't "get it" because they haven't experienced what we have experienced. They are blind, deaf and lost. But, Jesus makes you able to see, hear and be found. It is God's Will for everyone to have this. He doesn't want anyone to perish, but He's not going to force us to love Him. If one doesn't accept Him, then they can't have Him and if they don't have Him then they can't have anything He is (including life). Jesus is up in Heaven as he doesn't belong to this world. We are stuck down here without Him until He comes back to renew this world so that it does fit Him and those that believe in Him. But, we have to wait until that blessed time arrives. For now, He wants us to keeping loving, trusting and obeying Him until He returns. Then, unlike in Edward Scissorhands, we will be reunited and we will never ever be apart.
