It’s Halloween. Not one of the holidays I usually celebrated growing up, and one that if you live in Colorado, you usually had to wear your winter coat with or over your costume because that’s usually when our first snow hit. But, one thing that kind of goes with Halloween/ Fall and harvest time is the scarecrow. People probably think of the famed scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz when they think of scarecrows. He was a beloved companion who wished for a brain and helped Dorothy on her journey down the yellow brick road. Though this scarecrow is probably the most famous, there is another scarecrow I wanted to write about today that truly has a beautiful story as we continue to dwell in the land of Fall.
Historically, scarecrows were set up in wheat fields and vineyards to keep the birds away from the crops. They have evolved over the years and become more of a cute, fun symbol of Fall, but their original purpose was to be protector of the fields and harvest.
Nest entertainment, the animators who created Swan Princess and some other fun animated movies, came out with a movie about a scarecrow in 2000. It was a super cute movie and was placed in colonial America but had some modern dancing and references in it that made it super fun to watch. I watched it again this year and there were some strong references in it I really loved.
The Scarecrow tells the story of a witch who has a dancing spell that will make someone fall in love with you. The conceited dancing master in town–who runs a sweat shop that the poor people of the town have to work in endlessly making dance costumes and shoes(all things that are not even close to time period, but still fun)– finds out about the spell and the witch flees to an abandoned farm outside of town to keep him from getting the spell. One of the orphans, Polly, regularly visits the scarecrow on the witch’s property to hide her earnings to buy her freedom from the sweat shop. Since the witch is on her own, she makes the scarecrow come to life so she can have a friend to talk with and teach dance to. He looks forward to Polly’s visits and longs to talk to her and tell her of his growing feelings for her. Years pass, and Polly stays at the sweat shop to help buy the freedom of three other orphan children. Whenever they get a new coin, she runs out and puts it at the feet of the scarecrow, who vigilantly protects her means to buy her freedom.
The dancing master eventually finds the witch’s hiding place and tries to get her spell book. She takes off for parts unknown but leaves a wish behind for the scarecrow. The dancing master has tried to woo Polly for years and bribes her with gifts for her and the children she’s taken under her wings. When he finds out she has money to buy her own freedom, he sends his sniveling task master to find it and bring it to him. The scarecrow tries to stop him and hides in the cottage. He unknowingly activates the wish the witch left for him and selects the option to be human. He takes the magic feather the wish is tied to before she finishes her warning about the wish and looks human when the taskmaster arrives with two guards. As long as he wears the feather, he will look human. The only trouble is, reflective surfaces like mirrors and water show his true identity of being a scarecrow. And, his human appearance only lasts as long as he has the feather in his hat.
In the course of pure evil, the dance master uses the money Polly had been saving as prize money for a town-wide dance competition. Nothing like using what someone has worked for to buy their freedom as the prize for the competition you’ll rig to win to get her anyway. Anyway, Polly meets Feathertop, the name the scarecrow decides to go by when he’s a human, and they plan to win the dance competition together so she can have the money to buy their freedom. Good thing the witch taught the scarecrow how to dance 😊. In true old movie fashion, Feathertop and Polly dance together like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and of course, fall in love. The dancing master tries to detain Feathertop so he can win the competition with Polly and use the dancing spell on her to make her fall in love with him. It is a cartoon dance battle with dance moves from all the decades-so not time period, but who cares- that ends in the dancing master trying to put the love spell on Polly until Feathertop walks in and refocuses her attention from the evil charlatan to him. They win and plan to meet the next day to get married. Of course, the evil dancing master can’t let that happen and finds out that Feathertop is a scarecrow. He steals the feather and turns himself into Feathertop but the scarecrow’s friends steal the feather just as he is about to enter the church revealing his true nature. Polly still doesn’t go for him and goes to find Feathertop and get away from the dancing master. What the scarecrow missed at the end of the witch’s message was her telling him that helping others and giving your life for someone else is what life is about and real life can’t be his until he gives his life for someone. The dancing master, taking the if I can’t have her nobody will approach, gets his goons to destroy the bridge so that when Polly and the children go over it, they won’t make it across. Feathertop finds out and ends up sacrificing himself for them to get safely across the bridge. His mouse friend, Max, finds him in the rubble and he becomes a real human because he gave his life for Polly’s.
So much in this story and it was such a cute movie. It stuck out to me that Feathertop longed to be human because he had fallen in love with a human. When he received the magic feather, he was only given the appearing of a human, but he was really just a scarecrow. I wonder how often we do that in this life. We put on the appearance of religion or Christianity and go to church or dress the way we’re supposed to or try to follow the rules, but how many of us are existing in the appearance of our magic faith rather than truly living as a Christ follower? Having the appearance of something indicates nothing was really changed in that person and true sacrifice wasn’t made to become a different person. We can only keep up appearances for so long and eventually, we will step in front of a glass or mirror that will reflect our true nature underneath. We take the fluff parts of the gospel or the parts we want to hear or deem as good and don’t pay attention to the end where we are told it takes sacrifice and death to oneself to truly become a follower of Christ. It is only by giving up our old lives that we can truly become a new creation through Christ.
I thought it was interesting too how the dancing master tried everything under the sun to get Polly to marry him. Like our enemy, he bribed her with shiny new toys for the children and the care and freedom of marrying him. When that didn’t work, he tried a spell, and then resulted in ending her life when she wouldn’t give into him. Our enemy prowls around like a lion looking for who he can devour. He tempts us with things out of our reach that we want and desire and hits us in the areas we cherish most– our wealth, our security, our spouses, our children. And when he can’t get to us through those things, he tries to enchant us and draw us into his magic dance that puts our eyes in a false reality of love and desire for him and the life he’s offering us. If he still can’t prevail, he resorts to complete and utter destruction of our lives and makes us miserable. Like my second book, darkness lures us in and looks desirable and sweet, but the moment you want out or try to leave, it turns on you and entrap you in its grip until you believe there’s no way out.
Ultimately, I think it is an interesting picture of Christ. He is our great Protector who watches over His harvest and keeps the menacing attacks of the enemy away while guarding and protecting our treasures. He left his throne on high and stepped into earth as a human and knew the end of the story before he accepted that task–helping others and giving his life for someone else. He gave his life for someone else. He gave it up willingly for me and for you and for every person on this earth, and bought our freedom with his blood. He doesn’t have to entice us or put a spell on us. His love is so genuine and true, it shines forth from him and filters into the world for all ro see.
As you think about Fall and what it means to you or what lessons you can learn from this season, think about true your walk with Christ is. Are you a scarecrow with the appearance of a religious person or are you genuinely a living, loving, breathing, follower of Christ? Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror and see what image is needing reflected back.
theatregirl18 