Hello! I hope you're enjoying Mission week. I started writing this a while ago, as an encouragement before the Mission, and then never had time to post it. However, with a moment free today, it seemed like the right thing to do. After all, who else is going to make spurious links for you between Jesus and pop-culture...
Hello friends!
So since this last post, I have been thinking a lot about...Finding Nemo. Yes. That's not how you thought that sentence would end.
If you haven't seen it, it's the story of a little clown fish, called Nemo, who is an only child (fish...whatever) to an exceptionally nervous clown fish called Marlin. Nemo gets kidnapped off his coral reef, and taken back to a dentist's aquarium where he meets a bunch of other fish. Meanwhile, his father sets out to bring him back. To find Nemo, if you will.
It's jaunty, and it's heartfelt, and it's beautifully animated, so I really can't recommend it enough, but there's also a bit towards the end that I've been thinking about. See, Marlin's journey to rescue Nemo isn't easy. Of course it isn't. It's complicated and twisty and difficult. The bit that I've been thinking about a lot, though, comes towards the end.
(I should say, if you really don't want to know what happens in Finding Nemo, you might want to stop reading now.)
Nemo hears the story of his father coming to rescue him, and he just can't believe it. Everything that he has done, just for his little fish.
Now, you might wonder, how every anyone found this out to tell him. How does a pelican hear that a clown fish is crossing the ocean. That's a bit far fetched...
(Sorry about the quality of this one!)
They tell the story. They pass it on, one to another to another. And not because they have been compelled to, or because they have any idea of the one fish who needs to hear the story, but because it's a brilliant story. An exciting story. A story that anyone would hope was true for them. That one tiny person (fish...) is worth crossing oceans for. Worth battling sharks and traversing jelly fish and fighting on through. He is worth it, and friends, so are we.
Our story is one of a Father who travelled through much more, and did much more, and would have done it all had it only been for one of us. Isn't that amazing?
"I mean, it sounds like this guy will stop at nothing to find his son..."
"That's one dedicated father, if you ask me."
Sam spoke a few weeks ago (30 March 2014) at Bradfield about how we need to keep telling our story. That we have a story to pass on. That it's worth telling.
But it's not worth telling just because it's exciting, or because it's interesting. People haven't died for this story because it's a great narrative or because of the thrilling characters.
It brings hope. And it brings life.
So, as Mission week draws to a close, let's not forget the importance of passing on the story. Every day. Not just with Mission team members at special events, but all the time. Telling our story. Telling God's story.
He planted a witness in Jacob,
set his Word firmly in Israel,
Then commanded our parents
to teach it to their children
So the next generation would know,
and all the generations to come—
Know the truth and tell the stories
so their children can trust in God...
Psalm 78:5-7
