Honestly, I am a little critical when it comes to movies. I usually will save myself the expense of going to a theater and wait until it comes out on video so that I can turn it off if it is too unbearable to watch. Tonight I watched a movie called "The Secret Lives of Bees". I am not saying that this movie was unbearable, because overall it was an okay movie and it had all the components that make a decent movie, but for me what is always missing in these movies is the truth, Jesus.
The movie grieved my heart, and maybe God's also, because the faith expressed in the movie was faith in a god that brought a wooden statue of a "black" mother Mary, whom, tradition stated, was sent to give love, strength, hope and courage to the slaves. Throughout the movie, the characters are bowing down in front of this statue to pray, they are gathering together to worship before her, and they are reaching out to touch her heart so that they may be filled with her love.
One of the characters was a bit of an emotional wreck, and it was said that she carried the "weight of the world" on her shoulders. She built a stone wall and placed these weights on little pieces of papers and wedged them between the cracks in the rocks like they do at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. (If you haven't seen the movie and you want to see this movie read the rest of this later, because I am going to give something away.) Well, this character ends up killing herself and leaves a note on the wall for her sisters that she will be with her deceased family members and that she will be in a better place than she was before.
The questions and thoughts that this scene left in my mind were, "Where is she going now that she is dead? There was no mention or explanation of eternity, heaven or hell, nothing. What god was she following that would send a wooden statue that can't walk, talk, eat or even breathe for that matter to give love? I thought that her statue was pretty weak and could not handle taking the "weight of the world" upon her wooden shoulders, but the Bible says that Jesus took it and will take all of that weight off our backs if we go to Him and call on His name. Oh yeah, and where was all the love that this statue was supposed to fill these people with? After all was said and done, the character killed herself, but the Bible says that God's love is unfailing.
This statue, or any statue, can never do what the God of the Bible, the one that the Psalmist speaks of in Psalm 33 can and will do for us when we put our faith in Him. I know this personally, because He saved me from an attempted suicide and I could not deny the fact that He answered a direct cry for help from me to Him.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth- he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
Amen
