We finished last time with the movie A Beautiful Mind, which strikingly made the point that love conquers all, not wisdom. Before long I hope to speak more of our greatest dilemmas, what the Fall did to us and exactly what we suffer from. But I’ve been having far too good of a time citing evidence in stories about our greatest hope, God’s immeasurable love of us . . . to move on just yet.

It is difficult to speak of God or religious beliefs in the public realm these days without risking some sort of backlash, without being accused of being closed or narrow minded, or even prejudiced. Many people today seem content with living their lives according to whatever makes sense to them and seem to be trying to figure life out as they go. I believe some would be surprised to learn this is not a new strategy – “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25

But it you pay closer attention, in many of the stories that are made into movies and don’t seem to be about spiritual concerns at all, you will notice something different. Before long, someone begins to ask deeper questions:

• “Where did this world and this universe come from?”
• “Is there some greater purpose to life?”
• “Does it matter what you do in this life, or not?”
• “What brings happiness or fulfillment in this life or is it just not possible?”
• And more often than you would expect – “Do you think there’s a God?”

Most people seem to want to believe in some greater truth, or guiding principle, something to make sense of life — but before long are lost within their own story again, as if the immediate matters at hand are always more important.

I just recently watched the movie Interstellar again, my son Josh was learning the main theme on piano. As I was listening to him play it, I was completely mesmerized. The score was written by Hans Zimmer and the melody that consistently repeats is one of the most beautiful I have ever heard.

You can listen to a piano version on Spotify here . . .

. . . but be careful, because the most beautiful part has four notes, three ascending and one descending, that you may have trouble getting out of your head.

Which brings me to another thing — is music not one of the most beautiful things in this life? Did it not have to come from the heart of God? Does music not put us in touch with God’s very nature, perhaps better than words?

Music can be so breathtakingly beautiful, transporting us from the mundane, from whatever we may be thinking about or doing in the moment, to another place in our minds and hearts, to another world. Music transports us to a more emotional world, a more spiritual world, a more beautiful world . . . a better world. Might music be more connected to the Garden before the Fall than it is to this broken world?

In the movie Interstellar, the earth is dying because of a plight. There is dust everywhere, crops are harder and harder to grow and the end may be near. Secretly, at NASA, they are trying to find another habitable world, but also need to solve a gravity equation that would allow the construction of the spacecrafts necessary for a mass exodus from earth.

That last paragraph was specific and compelling enough that it should be more adequate for the plot of a good story, right? It may just turn out to be our story, one day. But as heavy as that is, that is not the main plot. Guess what is?

The love between a father and a daughter.

Love is always the story, there is nothing more important to us. This is what drives the action from the very beginning: just how close this father and daughter are; their painful separation precipitated by his being called away to save the world, for he just may be the only pilot capable of finding another world; and finally, the possibility they may never be reunited, he may never return from space, and leaving her becomes his greatest regret.

By the end of the story, you cannot help but think that the love between these two people is so important that it should have never been sacrificed, not for anything, not even for the survival of the whole world.

Is that what we are being asked to consider here?

Next time,
Sam