Our date night movie last night was Big Hero 6. It was entertaining and the production value was excellent. Animation has gone along way from the childhood cartoons I used to watch on TV. The plot was simple and pretty straightforward but there was a ring of deep truth to it.
Now, anyone watching the movie knows that this is a work of fiction, a totally invented fantasy world. But at the same time, any moviegoer will also see the truths the movie is telling its audience. One of these truths is that what and whom we love never leave us. What we love becomes part of us. People we love will always be in our memory or in our hearts or in our genes. Things we love become part of us. If we love beauty, we become beautiful. If we love courage, we become brave. If we love giving, we become generous.
The biblical account of creation is not a scientific treatise telling readers exactly how the world was made. But it conveys the truth of a Creator who made the universe and everything in it out of nothing. It tells us of a Creator who brought us into existence out of love and who shares a part of Himself with us that we may also become like Him, made in His image and likeness.
There are many ways of seeing. One can see with the eyes. The blind can see with their touch. And there are those who see with their hearts. Those who are short take up vantage points to see – like Zacchaeus did. Those who are tall stoop down to see. In the dark, we need light to see and in the brightness of the sun, we need shades. Happy the person who sees beyond the senses and into the deeper nature of things.
I will seat the victor beside me on my throne.
~Psalm 15
At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town.
Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man,
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said,
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.”
And he came down quickly and received him with joy.
Luke 19:1-6