Movie producers seem to think that realism means adultery, murder, drugs and foul language. Of course, that reflects what’s happening out there and, since people can’t help copying what they see, our old Enemy loves it. But there is another reality. There are dedicated believers out there who try to remain pure and faithful. This other reality may not get much coverage but it breaks through in some of the strangest places.
A while back, I watched the DVD “My Dog Skip”. It’s a family movie, pretty innocuous— but one brief scene lifted it into a far higher artistic (and realistic) class. The young protagonist, Willie, is bullied by some schoolmates into staying in Greenwood Cemetery overnight. We know, but he doesn’t, that they are, themselves, afraid to stay there. As the boy cowers under a tree among the gravestones, as wind lashes the branches and spatters of rain fall, I had the very strong thought, “This is phony. What does this boy have that the others don’t?” And just at that very moment, he started to softly sing, “A sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for Him.” The reality of his faith took my breath away. The writer showed the power of Jesus to carry him through any night.
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