A Hollywood Easter

I hope you all had a relaxing Easter and were able to slow down and enjoy a time of rest. I have always loved Easter, except for the passion play we used to go to at a local church that scared me half to death as a kid. Kids have been on my mind a lot over this last week. There is something about the way that a child sees a story that I absolutely love. They put all the emotion into it and they jump into the characters skin and the scenes come alive. They feel scared, valiant, excited, and courageous as they watch or hear a story unfold in front of them. I will never forget Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ", and am grateful to him for using film to shock me and help me feel the love of my father in heaven, but I did not watch it again this Easter. Instead I watched the "Chronicles of Narnia." I have always loved the book (C.S. Lewis was a stud in all respects), but the movie affected me deeply. Just like a little kid I found myself inside Narnia feeling the chill of a place that is always winter, never Christmas... sounds strangely like a place I just spent a few months. As I watched I felt the sting of winter, the expectation of springtime, and the hope that "Aslan is on the move". What an unbelievable picture of a Lion giving himself up to be humiliated, shaved, and murdered to save the life of a rotten little boy named Edmund. As much as I hate Edmund's character I realize that my desire for Turkish Delight sent Christ to the cross. What an amazing depiction of the Easter story on a screen told with animals, a deceiving witch, and a fierce lion that is GOOD above all else. I hope we never lose our love for story, the wonder of what is and the hope of what could be. Take a moment to think about your story and how God has written it. Through doing so I have begun to find that it is not my story at all, but that I am walking through God's bigger story.