Thank God for the retelling of old stories.

In 2014, Disney retold the children’s fairy tale Sleeping Beauty as Maleficent, the evil witch who enchanted the sleeping beauty.

For thousands of years we have told fairy tales with the handsome prince coming to the rescue of the victimized princess. Who did not love fairy tales like Snow White and those wonderful dwarfs that befriended her and helped her in her time of need? Disney retelling the ancient story of Sleeping Beauty intrigued me. The savior in this story was a woman; in fact, two women saved each other.

Disney’s version doesn’t focus on Sleeping Beauty but on the things in life that cause us to become bitter and allow evil to set in.

In the story of Maleficent we realize that the character Maleficent did not start out mean at all but loving, caring and trusting. When her friend took advantage of her for personal gain and greed, she became angry and set out for revenge. However, Disney doesn’t leave Maleficent there. Over time she realizes the mistake she made and spends all her time protecting the little girl she once wanted to hurt. Maleficent was overcome by love, and all the evil was taken away. What a wonderful Christian message for today!

Disney’s Maleficent does even more for today’s woman. When you study all the fairy tales of old, the stories often pit women against women—mother against daughter or sisters against each other. Jealousy between women is a common theme. Maleficent does not fit that pattern. Aurora, the sleeping beauty, was not awakened by the love of man but by the love of a woman—a mothering figure. Women today need to think about the love we have for each other and not let the slanted male understanding of us direct our story.

Jesus often talked about his love for the disciples—the men he called friends and brothers. These men would turn against him, sell him out for personal gain and, despite following him daily, not understand his message. Still, Jesus loved them in spite of their issues.

Like Maleficent, Jesus’ friend Judas set him up for greed and personal gain. However, I don’t often hear people talking about the negative relationship between men as they do with women. Throughout the Scriptures we see men plotting and committing acts of violence against one another and all creation. Why is deceit when perpetrated by men commonplace and expected but when done by women is scandalous and manipulative?

We have read Scripture through the eyes of men for so long. We tell the stories not by what we see and feel in the Scriptures ourselves but by retelling the same story. What was really going on with Judas? What was his background story? Maybe he was simply greedy, or maybe he trusted the religious leaders and believed what they were telling him about Jesus?

Scriptures tell a story about Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). He was considered a bad man because of his profession. When Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming, he went through much just to get a glimpse of him. Was he really a bad man or simply one trying to feed his family and unfortunately had a job that required cheating and invited skimming off the top, sort of like some government officials today?

Maybe, like Maleficent, he had become evil, defrauding and stealing from the people, until he met Jesus. When Zacchaeus meets Jesus, he vows to pay everyone back, and when Maleficent follows Aurora, she also is overcome with doing the right thing.

We, too, can retell our stories between man and woman, black and white, wealthy and poor by not looking at the negative things that have pulled us apart but by the love that has pulled us together again.

Retelling the story doesn’t mean we should make believe the original problems in the story did not happen. We should be open to telling the truth from different vantage points. It’s amazing how different the story can change with even a small adjustment, like a kiss given in love.

Kudos to Disney for retelling this childhood fairy tale, for it can be our guide to reexamine the way we tell our stories.

Let’s tell old stories from the position of the one who is or was oppressed and work to understand the circumstances he or she has overcome.

Cyneatha Millsaps is pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Markham, Ill.