Today, on a Black Saturday, Coco and I watched Prince of Egypt, the 1998 animated film retelling the Book of Exodus, about the Egyptian Prince Moses who learns his identity as a Jewish slave, and his destiny as the chosen one to free his people. The Pharaoh, his brother Rameses denied his plea, thus a series of plagues that was given by God strike Egypt. But it was only after the final plague, the death of the first born – which includes the son of Rameses, when the Pharaoh surrenders and frees the Israelites, as the Red Sea parted and drown the Egyptian army and ending with the introduction of the Ten Commandments epitaph.

I think I watched this the last time when it was first shown before, that is why it is refreshing to watch it again now with  Coco. I’m actually curious if Coco will understand it because honestly he is not much familiar with anything about the Bible. But he sat through it the whole time, laugh at funny parts and showed boredom at some. When the movie ended, I asked him if he understood anything and what did he learn from it. He said that God will always protect his people. Indeed, He will always protect his people. I’ve always believe that He will not give us anything that we can’t handle and whatever it is that is happening in the world now, is part of his will, his challenges.

A year in counting, we are still in a plague of our own and it has been making us become resilient and hold on to our faith in Him. I just can’t help it but compare the film to the present time. Pharaoh denies the power of the plagues until it is too late is it to our government mishandling a lot of things at the start of the pandemic and now, it is too late and many people have already suffered and passed.

The Passover is to the protocols that we have to follow. You know what happens if we don’t follow, right? God sent the plagues to teach the Pharaoh a lesson. Did God send over the Covid19 virus to teach us a lesson as well? We did actually learned a lot of things during this pandemic season of our lives. 

As the Israelites march their way out of Egypt and as Moses’ sister Miriam and wife Tzipporah belt out When you Believe (and me singing with them), I just can’t help it and got teary eyed. I wondered when a similar moment for us will take place. I always knew it, we will when we believe. I just hope it will be sooner, rather than later. 

Prince of Egypt is a story of faith, hope and love. Faith that He will protect us in all ways, as Coco said earlier. Hope that whatever challenge that will come, it will be over soon and love.. love will always prevail – love for his people, love for his family, love for his self because it is the greatest of them all. This is also our story.. and it has been for the last 13 months of our lives. We will move mountains, though hope is frail.. when we believe.