Editor’s Note: This article was originally written when we first launched Elisha’s Riddle. That same week a story hit the news about the discovery of a “Siberian Unicorn.” Click here to read it.

Recently, I heard a whisper in my heart to watch a particular movie that I came across on Netflix one day. I had never heard of it before, but it’s apparently a well-loved animated story. This 1982 film, The Last Unicorn, centers around a beautiful, pure, and innocent Unicorn who discovers that all the other unicorns in the world are being held captive. No one has physically seen a unicorn in a long time, and many do not even believe in them anymore. You soon learn that all other unicorns had been driven into the sea behind the castle of an evil king, and there they continue to be held. And so having learned this unfortunate news, the Last Unicorn leaves her perfect wooded paradise in search of the lost ones.

Along the way, a friendly magician accidently—providentially—turns her into a human. At first this is seen as tragic, but then they realize that being human enables her access to the king’s castle. We find that this is the only way she could have entered his lair, for if the king knew she was a unicorn, he wouldn’t have let her in.

So the Unicorn-Human enters the castle and lives there for a long period of time. She does not know the way to find the captive unicorns, but a “riddle” is given to her and her companions about wine and skulls. They end up feeding wine to a human skeleton guarding the area that leads to the unicorns. Satisfied by the wine, he tells them the way to go and they enter through a secret passage to a patch of shoreline behind the castle. After a battle with a beast (and a prince who gives his life for the Unicorn), the ocean waves shift. Suddenly, the hidden and captive unicorns appear all over the ocean waves and they gallop onto the shore and back out into the world. The prince is then resurrected by the Unicorn-Human. The evil king’s castle crumbles to nothing and the Unicorn-Human turns back into a glorious Unicorn, but says very clearly that a piece of mortality (humanity) will forever be with her… And of course, they live happily ever after.

I was overwhelmed by the Riddle of the Gospel hidden in this film… The Unicorn is a wonderful picture of divine innocence and glory. Obviously, this is a picture of God, but it is also a picture of humanity’s original glory, which was lost at the Fall. Like those who doubted the existence of unicorns, there are countless people who doubt the reality of man’s true identity. However, that is only because the true image of God within man has been held captive by the enemy within the castle-like stronghold of deception.

Thankfully, God—the eternal and true “Unicorn”—became flesh. He turned into a human and entered into the enemy’s camp to release our original Glory and innocence back into the earth. The wine of the New Covenant awakens people from death (like giving wine to the skeleton), which opens the way back to that original glory (the unicorns hidden in the sea). The unicorns were always there (just like our true identity is there, hidden within the sea of humanity). That true identity and original Glory was finally released back into the world because of the work of Christ and His sacrificial death (like the prince giving his life at the end)!

The Gospel is truly hidden everywhere. God continues to speak in parables to all humanity, even arresting the hearts of writers and animators to communicate the truth of the incarnation. The glory of God that covers the earth as the waters cover the sea abides everywhere, and the way has been opened for us to come back to it. The enemy’s stronghold has been defeated and washed away. Now the good news involves WAKING UP to this reality—to drink the wine of grace and see the glory of God redeemed in mankind.

For me, seeing this movie was quite a powerful experience. As I mentioned in the beginning, I had never heard of it before and thus did not know anything about the plot. Yet the Sunday before I watched this movie, I had given a message about human skulls! I talked about the “Place of the Skull” (Golgotha) where Jesus was crucified—where He broke the headship of sin and the false identity man had fallen into. This is where the New Covenant was established. Before that, I had been teaching on the glory of God that covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! In this message, I had also talked about the coming day when more and more people will come into an awareness or realization of that Glory. That Glory is Christ—the union of God and man…

I am continually blown away by all of this. I can only stand in awe and wonder over this riddle-speaking God, who is ever drawing humanity into the truth, even through stories of unicorns and princes.

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The Last Unicorn – Rankin/Bass Productions / Incorporated Television Company (ITC) / Topcraft

(Artwork by StellaB, used with permission – stellab.deviantart.com)