by Brooke Arney

If you translate the title of this devotional directly, it means a charm in the house of God, or, if you’re a huge Disney nerd like me, all you saw was “Encanto” and immediately started singing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”. Either way, there is a reason I picked that title. (Side note: movie spoilers are ahead!)

In the movie “Encanto”, the whole family puts a lot of emphasis on their encanto, or magical gifts…to the extent that the family is slowly being torn apart. But no one wants to admit that he or she is struggling or has feelings that need to be discussed. Everything is pushed aside for el encanto.

Sometimes in our own lives, whether family is involved or not, we have un encanto that we pride ourselves on, yet we don’t see the damage it is doing. Just like in the movie, at some point this will cause our casita (house) to fall apart to nothing but rubble. When that happens, most of the time our first reaction is to find the first person to blame for causing this to happen. In the movie, the family’s magical gifts are taken, and they have to rebuild their home piece by piece…but they build each other up in the process! They learn that each is equally important, even without a magical gift.

Sometimes I feel God tries to show us that same thing. In His familia we aren’t meant to have one special gift that we pride ourselves on. That gift is not what is meant to define who we are as a person in the world, in our families, or in God’s eyes. No, our gifts are meant to bring us together! To help each other hand in hand, through the good and the bad! We all can have our own encanto but the minute it takes your eyes away from God, and how it can serve His kingdom, you have just put another crack in your casita.

1 Corinthians 12:7 sums it up nicely: “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”