GN Commentary: November 27, 2008 - Twilight

It seems we human beings have always yearned to be something more than what we are.

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Video Transcript

Vampires, beautiful people, romance, action and blood: quite an explosive and fantastic mix. I'm talking about Twilight of course, the big-screen, estrogen-charged blockbuster that just opened in cinemas around the US.

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The film took in over $70 million on its opening weekend tying for the 4th biggest November opening ever. The vampires even overpowered James Bond, at least at the box office.

Twilight is a modern-day vampire story with enough sex appeal to cause "Twi-hards" or "Twilighters" (as fans are sometimes called) to, as Entertainment Weekly recently reported, "scream for the author at a decibel level normally reserved for boy bands".    

What accounts for the potent attraction of this plot about an unsuspecting young woman and superhero vampire?  There are many themes in the movie that have fascinated people for thousands of years: themes such as tasting the forbidden fruit. Author Stephenie Meyer has said that the heroine flirting with the vampire love interest is like the story of the Garden of Eden; Genesis 2:7 is even quoted in the beginning of the novel. But there are also other themes: the tension of dealing with maturing emotions and sexual potential, a handsome superhuman hero rescuing a beautiful damsel in distress, even escape from death itself, by being, well, undead.  Such is the stuff of our collective 21st-century fantasies.

It seems we human beings have always yearned to be something more than what we are. Look at the myths and legends of history and you'll see we've always dreamed of being stronger, faster, smarter, of being more noble, of finding a perfect love, of defying death.

Whether or not we deal with those desires realistically, it is important to know that the yearning is in us because our Creator put it in us.

The Bible says "He has put eternity in [our] hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We do yearn for eternity; to break through the limitations of our mortal existence.

And God's whole plan for humanity is to help us do just that; to achieve a potential far beyond this sometimes mundane physical life.

The Bible says this about our incredible potential: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  … it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:1-2). Did you get that? We can be like the Power behind the entire incomprehensible universe, visible and invisible.

How's that for becoming a super hero? And this is no fantasy; it's the absolutely stunning reality. Who needs vampires; the Creator of all that exists is leading us on a mysterious journey of adventure and discovery that can end with us becoming like Him, all powerful, all-knowing, for all eternity.

For GN magazine, I'm Joel Meeker.