There are many different ways to learn about God. For me one of them is through children movies. Read this post and see which movie has made me think about Jesus recently.
Learning about God and faith from a secular children movie? You probably think that I’m really stretching it.
No, I am not. I have watched a number of children’s movies in the last few years and I can relate plots and messages of almost all of them to what Bible tells us about us life, God, Jesus and other topics.
One particular movie that does that is “Sing”. For those who haven’t watched it, this is briefly what it is about.
Koala bear Buster Moon presides over a once-grand theatre that is going through a rough patch. An eternal optimist, and a bit of a scoundrel, he loves his theatre above all and will do anything for it to survive. Facing the crumbling of his life’s ambition, he takes one final chance to restore it to its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition. Five contestants emerge: a mouse, a timid elephant, a pig, a gorilla and a punk-rock porcupine.
Each animal represents a different personality and life story but they all, like us people, want to change something about their life – e.g. not be only limited to a role of mum, have their own record label or simply win big money. They all trust the koala to help them do that.
We’ve all seen it
We all have seen similar stories in real life – dissatisfaction with your current life, dreaming of a different life and someone who promises to help us achieve that new life. And we trust them. Or we trust specific things, like fitness, business, a hobby etc., to be the solution. What we’re missing is the fact that thing or the person we trust is always going to be temporary. When watching “Sing”, I realised I have done it on more than a few occasions. I’ve put my trust in stuff while the only trustworthy person, source of life and ‘thing’ is Jesus.
In the movie, we see Buster Moon lying, failing and loosing motivation. But when we trust Jesus, we know He is not going to give up at the first hurdle; His promises aren’t made by a mistake and are not empty. What He gives us is sure and eternal. It is not based on our performance or talent but on what He has already accomplished on the cross. What Jesus gives us is also not built on something that might change but when He gives us a helping hand, it’s forever. And he really turns our life around.
“The only way is up”
Buster Moon tells the show participants to dream big – he puts their hopes up, but he has nothing to back it up. Unlike Jesus. Jesus gives us confidence rooted in His love for me and you. He promises to always be with us and even if we fall, He will be there to help us get back up again. And again. And again. And forever.
We are like those animals in the movie. We run into different problems and we look for solutions in other people. But there is only one person that can give us the solution.
The new opportunity and hope to change their lives make the characters in the movie stronger, bolder and more motivated to work hard for the prize they cannot see. And whilst we think that this is what things and opportunities give us, it again is temporary. But n Chris we can find true motivation and inspiration forever.
Knowing our value in Him, knowing the truth about Him and through Him about ourselves, makes us bolder, more confident, more likely to support others – but not for a short time because of the motivation around us, but for good because of the power that exists in God and His Spirit.
Real promise
At the end of the movie everyone has changed and that’s what Jesus does to all of us, but in a permanent way. Like Mr Moon, God wants us to realise our full potential He wants to change our lives, but He doesn’t want to change them with money, fame and success but by giving us Jesus, a gift like no other.
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I find it fascinating to watch a ‘normal’ movie but through it see that God uses to share an important truth with me.
There are other children movies (and grown up too) that share message that points us to Jesus and the teaching of the Bible so I encourage you to explore them for yourself and see what God has got to share with you.
I’ll keep looking for my own biblical lessons in them and sharing them when I can.
Good Good Life 
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