The books are not meant to do that. There's no hidden meanings or symbolism that I'm trying to draw out...I can barely pick out the symbolism in the Narnia series even though my husband has explained it to me countless times! I just want to share some of the things that have caused me to think about Heaven as I was reading these books. And if you've been reading this blog very long, you already know that pretty much any random thing can trigger another random thought for me ;)
Which reminds me, I need a disclaimer first. Here it is: The following post will in fact give away some of the plot of the Twilight series, if you are or will be reading this and do not want it given away you should leave now...right now. :)
So why on earth does reading about fictional vampires make me think of Heaven?!? Good question. Who knows the answer, I certainly have no idea. But my thoughts on Heaven come from Scripture...not just things I like to make up...which I should clarify, because somethings I do like to make up...like words...I digress.
Here's a few reasons.
There are certain qualities of the vampire characters that make me think about the new perfect bodies we'll be getting in Heaven. Those bodies will in fact be EVEN better than a vampires ;)
- beautiful, perfect, no sickness, no weakness.
- I imagine our senses will all be so much clearer. What we see, touch, taste, feel, hear etc will likely be 10,000x's greater.
- When Bella is changed, she looks different but her dad and Jacob still recognize her. Much like what will likely happen in Heaven.
- Bella, as a human, does her best to try to understand what being in a vampires body will be like...but nothing compares to her actually experiencing it for herself. I think we will be completely blown away at the perfectness of them, things we can't even begin to imagine or understand with our puny little minds.
- The devotion that Edward feels towards Bella, not being able to be away from her makes me think of how relationships will be in Heaven. So closely bonded. And with Jesus...I imagine the desire to be in His presence will be overwhelming.
- Understanding one anothers thoughts clearly.
- The eternal aspect of it. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around eternity. Priorities change when there's no time crunch.
- I think we'll be able to move here and there really quickly ;)
- The vampires have an amazing sense of style...deep, I know.
- And the Cullen's baseball game...I think that's what baseball will be like in Heaven.
- No need to sleep! No feeling tired and worn out.
Ok, I'll stop BUT I do have to say...I'm not big into vampires or vampire stories (although I did go to that one movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt back when I was in High school because seriously those were Brad Pitt's glory days) but this series really does just pull ya in and it's really quite fun to read.
I've heard different critiques of the authors writing style, but I for one, am so not a writer that I can't tell ya anything about what she does or does not do well. All I know is that I just read four big books because...I liked the story and loved the characters. Book #2 got a little long for me...and the 4th one is my favorite. That's all I know :)
PS...
- I do not think we will drink blood...for the record.
- And I hope we're not all pale. This pasty-white-Iowan would like some color...I'm hoping Jesus agrees. *smiles*
This just exceeded my own personal limit on blog post length...I had to skim my own writing. So sad.
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oh sarah, you are too funny!
ReplyDeleteI never would have made that analogy, but I'm sure glad that you did! I'm glad you enjoyed the series. Book 4 was surprisingly my least favorite, but I'm so with you about book 2.
ReplyDeleteTake it from someone who is always too wordy, this is short! Also, I am intrigued, I may have to read these books.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I am pretty sure, given how Christ is the "Light" of the world, we will all have excellent tans...ok, I may be stretching the meaning a bit!
Thanks for guiding my thoughts upward today!
Believe it or not, I've actually made the heaven connection, too!! Must be a "pastor's wives" thing. ;-) Thanks for your insight.
ReplyDeleteWhat will you be reading next???
That is so awesome; I love the correlations you made. Thank you!!! =D
ReplyDeleteokay, so i skipped this post ~ 'cause i have not read the books. haven't really decided if i am going to or not. i've heard they can be hard to put down and i have kids to feed and all. but i probably will.
ReplyDeletebut since you have and i totally trust your judgement and all....what did you think about them? my niece wants to read them (she's 16) my sister in law wanted me to kinda look into it for her since i have thought about reading and going to see the movie. my first thought was they would totally scare me since it's about vampires and all but i have heard it is not scary at all, more of a love story....but still....can't get past the whole vampire thing.....too many scary movies back in the day
I too had some spiritual thoughts when reading these books. The thing that got me was the irristiability of the vampires. The way they had perfect bodies, perfect voices, perfect movements...all for the purpose of "luring in humans" making them appear so desirable that the humans let their guard down. (granted the Cullen's were above this, but I mean vampires in general) I was struck by the fact that Jesus is perfect and he doesn't have to lure us in. He doesn't have to appear completely wonderful. He IS completly wonderful. We can't help but be drawn to him. (and he doesn't devour us to) yet we are drawn to Him with this magnetism. And instead of consuming us in a negative sense, He does in fact transform us.
ReplyDeleteI don't know now that I type it out it really doesn't seem to make much sense...your points were way better than mine. And it has been over a month since I finished the series... I guess i just wanted to say that while I was reading the books, I too kept drawing some spiritual parallels.
I thoroughly enjoyed the books and was previously NOT a vampire or even a sci-fi kind of girl.
Life At the Circus: Oooh, that's a good one! So true!
ReplyDeletegreat post...i can't wait to see the movie.
ReplyDeleteoh, and i love your comment re: the brad pitt glory days!
I read all four books in less than 10 days. I was hooked from the first sentence! A lot of people (who haven't read yet) said "vampires, eewww!"). And I would say, "Yes, vampires, but you have got to read these books they are so good!" Anyway, I think as Christians we do tend to see things differently, I saw some of the same things you did. I just hope all of these teenagers who have no Christian influence in their lives will not be looking for their vampires;) And you know I don't believe in them, but you know what I mean, right?
ReplyDeleteI love a good book. One that grabs you from go and transplants you into the story, like your standing there feeling and seeing it with your own eyes. These books did that for me. I LOVE your post. I hadn't thought about it that way. I just thought it was a good STORY. I too can't wait to see the movie. I also hope your right about us not being pasty in Heaven, cause I've been obessed with using sunblock here and if I'm going to be pasty there, I'm going back to my dark tanning oil!
ReplyDeletei love your connections... so funny because i never would have thought of it!!!
ReplyDeletebook 3 was my favorite. after seeing the movie i had the urge to read them again... haven't started yet, but maybe will after christmas!
I've heard about this series over and over and over and over... but nothing ever made me really want to read it like you have today. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, those are some good parallels you pulled there. :)
On a completely unrelated note, my word verification today is expulax. Sounds like a medical remedy, no?
You did not just compare us in heaven to vampires.
ReplyDeleteSo, funny we posted opposite posts today. Two great minds do not think alike.
I didn't think this post was long.
ReplyDeleteThis made me smile...for many, many reasons
ReplyDeleteI read the books in a week flat, simply couldn't put them down! I have to say I really enjoyed the comparisions you drew from the books.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think your post was long. And I liked the comparisons you make. I've seen the movie and it was pretty good, better than I expected. Now when I read the books I believe I'll be able to look at them in a little different way after reading your post. Thanks for giving me something to think about.
ReplyDeleteGuess I need to go get the books now. :)
ReplyDeletei love this review...very interesting! :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't make that analogy either, but it's fun and interesting to look at it that way. There's another book, kind of a sad one, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, that looks at Heaven through a child's perspective that I thought was cool and interesting too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about it, I LOVE this series!! She has another book out, The Host, but it's about aliens. Who knows???
Not sure I should get "sucked in" right now. Too much to do, too many episodes of "The Office" to catch up on. (someone reccomended the show to me... Now who was it again.... :-)) It's great therapy!!
ReplyDeleteGood...good...goood. I hadn't made those connenctions. But I agree.
ReplyDeleteAs to the actual books...man, I almost had to quit book 2...but I am glad I didn't...I loved lots of parts of book four...but thought she spent too much time on the visiting vampires. I just wanted to get to the good part.
first of all- she turns into a vampire??? :) didn't see that one coming...
ReplyDeleteand secondly- i am banking on the fact that i can leap from tree to tree. i think God would really like me to beable to do that. :)
it's funny how passion for life and for good and all that stuff always comes out in hollywood- can't wait to see the real thing!!