From what I hear, Avatar has caused quite a commotion. I saw it for the first time tonight and can see why. It is a beautiful film, full of imaginative and breathtaking action and plot. But more than that, it offers something to the audience that is totally foreign and yet similar enough to our own reality that it pulls our hearts with desire. It offers a chance to escape, a chance to dream a better reality and then to stay inside our dreams, it offers a look into a society of order, peace, and healing. Because of this, apparently there are literally support groups for people who have seen Avatar and have been thrown into a depression because they want it to be real so badly.
Okay, I’m gonna get weird here and say that the reason it pulls so much at our heartstrings is that there is a ton of truth in that movie. In my opinion, the reason our hearts ache when we think of a world like Pandora is because our hearts remember better than our brains what the world used to be like, and what the world itself is aching to get back to.
The God of Israel created the world to be very similar to Pandora (minus the paganism). We were created in an order, we were created last as stewards of that order and union between all created things. We were created in his image, bearing a responsibility to care for the earth and subdue it. Instead, we have crushed it. And we know we are wrong.
We messed up the natural order of living in and caring for a world that constantly, in everything, gives glory to its Great Creator. And God, in his awesome goodness, has made a way to restore that order, in Jesus Christ. In Jesus you find the beauty and imaginative power, the fulfillment of prophecies and respect for all of life, the worship of the Creator, and the gentle warriors that are all contained in Avatar, but to a much greater degree, because it is reality. He is reality.
Jesus died and rose again to make a way through the Holy Spirit for us to come back into relationship with our Creator. And one day he is coming back to restore all of creation to Himself and God the Father. And we’ll answer for the ways we crushed his beauty over and over again.
If you can’t get enough of Avatar, read The Silent Planet and Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. It is basically the same idea, except soaked in the Gospel. Totally incredible.
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"Covered in dust" stems from an image explored by Rob Bell in which the disciples of Jesus follow him so closely that they are covered in the dust kicked up by his feet. I am a follower of Jesus and this blog is an outlet for expression of what I am learning as I seek to follow him, drawn by grace.
i loved this movie too for similar reasons. 'because our hearts remember better than our brains what the world used to be like', this phrase intrigues me. can say some more on what that means? also, how do you react to people who say this movie is a big tree hugging, leftist agenda & tryin to push salvation through environmental means? i would love your thoughts on that.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe!
ReplyDelete"our hearts remember better than our brains what the world use to be like..."
- This line is probably a little too romanticized, but what I was trying to capture in words were those little moments where something catches one's breath and destroys a false world view. For example, when light filters through a tree leaf or we see pure joy on a 3-year-old's face, and the only thing one can think in those moments is "this is how the world should be all the time." In other words, sometimes moments of true love and beauty are all it takes to destroy the popular worldview that this world, as it is now, is all that there is or ever will be. Our hearts (emotions) can sometimes feel hope in spite of how we use our brains to create false world views that have no basis in Biblical truth.
What do you think?
"how do you react to people who say this movie is a big tree hugging, leftist agenda trying to push salvation through environmental means?"
I would mostly agree, actually. The movie way overemphasizes love for the environment, and sets up nature as a god. There are pieces of truth in the movie that grab our hearts and, in my opinion, push us to think about how there has got to be more than the world as it is right now, a better way to live in a better world. The problem is that the movie has nowhere to push people except toward a "love the earth more, for she is god" mentality. The Gospel of Jesus gives the full answer: the created earth is to be cared for and subdued by created human beings in order to give glory to its Creator, God. We are called to cultivate and develop creation, with a love for it because it is an expression of a beautiful and creative God. That love is not to exceed our love for Him, because that doesn't even make sense. The created thing is not greater than its Creator.