(Photo by Selma Komisky)

Marked Ministry Online Magazine is not sponsored or endorsed by Disney or Pixar. Views and opinions expressed here are made independently from Disney and its affiliates. Disney and Pixar hold all rights for all films, stories, and artwork.

With Faith and Trust, who Needs Pixie Dust?

By Maxine O’Loane

Admit it, whether you’re 13 or 30, we all have at least one Disney movie that’s a perfect go-to. You can either be watching it at a princess themed sleepover with all your friends or have The Goofy Movie on your Netflix account just waiting for the perfect carefree Friday night and a big bowl of popcorn to start watching it (yes, I’m speaking from experience). What I’m trying to say here is that Disney has made an impact on just about everyone’s childhood. There’s just something about innocent storylines, bright colors, lovable characters and of course, some of the catchiest soundtracks you’ve ever heard. Honestly, the next time you watch a Disney movie try not to sing along and you’ll see what I mean. But, besides the royal family blood lines, talking animals, and catchy tunes Disney is known for having some type of hidden moral messages in their movies that we can all apply to some aspect of our lives. For example, let’s take a classic like Peter Pan. Can you take a guess at what life lesson we can all take from the never aging Pan? If you can’t think of it right away that’s okay, it took me a while to figure it out too. It teaches us about the importance of having two things, faith and trust. Bet you never thought about tying Peter Pan and God together, or was that just me?

Although there’s so much going on in this adventure filled movie, I want to try and focus on the movie’s most quoted line, “All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.” I know he uses this to explain to Wendy and the boys how to fly, and sadly, while I can’t help you fly (I’ll leave that to the flight instructors), I can help you see this story from a higher point of view. Who knows, maybe by the end of this article you can spread a little “magic” of your own. Faith and trust were key factors in the movie; Wendy and her brothers needed to have faith that Peter would get them back home safely, and Peter’s friends needed to trust that he and Tink would have their back no matter what kind of trouble they got into. Now, looking at it from a spiritual perspective, faith and trust play a crucial role in our relationship with God as well. Just like Peter and his friends trusted and relied on each other for help when they were in danger, we need to trust that God will protect us and see us through any trouble that comes our way. Psalms 115:1 tells us, “You who fear the Lord, Trust in the Lord, He is their help and shield.”

Trust is defined as a firm belief and reliability in the ability of someone or something.  Throughout the movie it seemed like Peter Pan showed up right when his friends needed him the most, whether it was saving Tinker Bell from Hook’s grasp or Wendy right before she hit the water. Truth is, when it didn’t seem like he could save them, his friends still trusted and relied on their belief in Peter’s ability to help them, even when it seemed hopeless. And that’s the same type of trust we should have with God. We need to trust that he will protect us and help us whenever things start to fall apart, and, if we can’t see anything changing, to know that he’s still protecting us.

Faith, similar to trust was also important for Peter and his friends to have, when it came to getting out of trouble. Faith is having complete trust, belief and hope in someone or something. The movie ties this into the pixie dust; Wendy and her brothers couldn’t actually see their faith or trust that they could fly, so by having something they could visibly see, like Tinkerbell’s pixie dust, helped boost their faith a little bit. This was significant because it gave them the confidence to really give flying a try and eventually led them to follow Peter out of their house and on to their way to Never Land. Talk about taking a leap of faith! They needed to have faith to get to follow Peter to Never Land. Then later that same faith was put to the test again when they were captured by Captain Hook, and then by the Indians, hoping that Peter would save them before it was too late. The key here, at least for me, is keeping that faith even without seeing what was going to happen, but knowing that it was still going to be okay. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that while it’s easy to trust and have faith in something or someone is when you can visibly see it or them, but the true test of how strong your faith is when you don’t have a visible representation in front of you.

Now, I’ll admit that the definition I gave earlier was good; I personally think that the book of Hebrews does an incredible job at explaining what faith truly is. Hebrews 11:1-3 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” I don’t know about you, but that speaks volumes to me. In the same way that all the kids trusted Peter and had faith that he was not going to let them down or get hurt, we need to have that same mindset about God. We may not be able to see him with our own eyes, but we can see what he does in our lives. Tinkerbell’s Pixie Dust was used to give everyone that extra boost in their faith; we should use what we’ve witnessed God do in our lives to give us a boost when we need to have our faith recharged. So, to add my own twist on Peter’s advice to Wendy, John, and Michael, I’ll leave you with this, “As long as you have faith and trust, who needs the Pixie Dust?”