Flashbacks

~ A camera scans a small, African village.  Black skin glistens in the sun, mingling with the flashing of machetes and the shimmer of fresh blood.  Crying fills the air.  Bodies fall and are cut to pieces by men wielding the machetes.  The men watch this horrible scene, video taped just a few minutes before by a reporter.  Shock and repulsion pour from their mouths as they watch the Genocide of  Rwanda.  One man speaks up with a glimmer of hope in his voice, "How can people watch this and not help but do something to intervene?"  The reporter looks up with tears in his eyes and says this unforgettable statement. "I think that when people turn on their TVs and see this footage, they'll say, "Oh my, that's horrible," and then they'll go back to eating their dinners."'  ~

~ A little boy cries in frustration.  His father is lying in a hospital dying, and he can do nothing about it.  This summer was supposed to be perfect.  What little boy wouldn't want to spend a whole summer with a dad who lives on the beach?  But what little boy, who invested his {everything} heart, soul, love, time {everything} in being with his dad, would want to suddenly find out that his dad is about to die?  As this little boy cries, he works rapidly, alone, to finish the project he had started with his daddy.  If he can get this stained glass window done before his daddy dies, then they can put it back in the Church window, and he can make is dad proud.  Bumping around, breaking glass, he's too short to reach, to small to get anything.  He cries in frustration, anger, pain.~

~Stammering, stuttering, trying to grasp words that are just out of his reach, he stands before a judge, fighting for the custody of his only child.  Does it matter that this man has only the mental capacity of a 7 year old?  He has raised this little girl since the day she was born, now they want to take her away?~

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These "rising action" sections in movies call for tears.  The time right before the climax is where the anticipation is almost, almost as high as it can be, but not quite.  During this part in a movie, the characters have developed and usually throw out a witty, humorous, or tear-jerking comment.  Sometimes these lines are used to ease the tension and bring laughter.  Other times, they simply build the tension.  

Why do we love movies?  How can a simple line from a fictitious character that we have only met 1 hour before, and never spoken a word to in our whole life, cause us to well up in tears?  How can watching a genocide that happened 4 years after I was born create such a sense of rage and injustice?  Watching a little boy cry as his father lays in a hospital dying practically made me flood the theater with tears {although I was able to hold them back, much to the delight of those around me}  A man, no less deserving of his child than any other man, cannot keep her.  Why?  Why do we connect to a movie with a strong emotional bond?

Movies speak to every human being {with the exception of some moms =D }   They portray normal people, living normal lives, lives very similar to our own, yet we LOVE to watch them.  How interesting would it be to watch a movie about you?  Not very?  Now how about if only the highlights of your life were shown, music added to epic portions, the parts where you fought with your parents, and any time the sun set?  Now, it might be more interesting.  

We love movies, because they are flashes of real life, without having the "real life" part.  (I know I'm stretching it a bit, but just play with me here)  We never have to watch the kitchen being cleaned up, food being eaten, time taken to sleep, the arguments that are never resolved.. yet we get to see the big picture.  We can see how it ends.  In a movie, you are privy to the ending.  You can watch the subtle, underlying annoyances which are actually there to grow and develop the character without missing the point.  In real life, those pesky people, the people who never seem to want to do what you want, the ones who are always a hindrance, and sometimes {the ones you take for granted} are the people who truly shape you and press you to God.  While watching a movies, it is so easy to yell "Common stupid! Open your eyes... *that* guy likes you and he is totally the one you should marry... not the ditsy one with the flashy hair!"  Or, "Oh my gosh, that person is totally going to help them improve {whatever} because they are just so annoying!"  In real life, we have to live with that person day in and day out. Not quite the same experience. 

Now, this may be a stretch, but I think that movies are so attractive because we all want to see "how life's gonna end" and a movie gives us that chance.  We see how a situation or person influences and changes a person throughout an amount of time.  Sympathy, empathy and an underlying desire to see how life is going to end allows us to watch a movie with a beating heart.  

As Christians, we long for the end of the story.  Sometimes our very spirit groans, cries out for peace.  {For heaven}  The uselessness with living on earth overwhelms us.  What good am I doing living here?  I affect no one, I am affected by no one.  Heaven is where I belong, where I was created to be.  That is where the movie analogy comes in.  Our life, our movie, is short in God's eyes.  He see's perfectly what the ending will be.  He can sit and "watch the show."  Sometimes, we can look back, and suddenly and its an "oh..." moment.  I see.  I understand when I look back, why the things happened which did, the circumstances which were so painful, were meant for something more.  It will happen this way over and over during our lifetime.  We watch our own movie slowly.  

But for now, until the time when we can look back, our hearts cry out for the end of the story.

 "¹ For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven... ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." 2 Cor 5:1-2,5