My sweet husband watched a chick flick with me Sunday. Usually I am watching car shows with him, but he put this movie on and we sat and watched it together. It is called 'The Light Between Oceans'. A heartbreaking movie set in Australia at the end of World War I. Tom comes back from the war traumatized by all the death, but also by the fact that he managed to survive, seemingly unscathed. He applies to become a lighthouse keeper on a deserted island at a juncture between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean, one hundred miles away from the nearest town. While finalizing his assignment in Port Partageuse he meets Isabel, a local girl who has dealt with her own loss. Her two brothers died in the war. She is the last surviving child in her family. She and Tom end up marrying, trying to have children on that lonely rock. She has two miscarriages and seems to be losing her hold on sanity. Then a dingy washes up on the shore of that island and in it is a dead man and a little baby. Isabel believes that the baby was sent to them, that she could save it and it could save her.
You see these poor broken people. Tom being saved by the love of Isabel. Isabel being saved by Tom's sacrifice. The baby being saved by them both. Long story, beautiful movie. They find out the birth mother is still alive and has been grieving the loss of her husband and child. Tom cannot live with the burden and finally they are found out. If you have not seen it I won't give away the whole plot, but Hannah the birth mother must make some difficult decisions.
Many of us spend our whole lives trying to do what it is not our job to do. We make decisions out of our pain. We react to circumstances rather than seek God's will as to what to do. We try to be savior to our loved ones, when we cannot possibly carry that burden. We hide our hurts, bury our misery, ignore our agony all the while not quite fooling ourselves. We live between two worlds. The world where we are captain of our own ship and the world where we give all to the Lord. Much like that isle in the movie. A barren, windswept rock between the Indian and Southern oceans. And on that rock stands a lighthouse. The question is, when we see that light, what do we do?
In the movie, there seems to be no save haven for any of them. The pained soldier trying to come to grips with a chance at life after so much destruction. The young woman who cannot carry a child to term. Or the bereaved widow who has lost husband and daughter. Hannah is caught in a horrible place. Can she forgive these people who seem to have taken so much from her. She is shown reminiscing about her husband Frank, a German who is hated by the local townsfolk. In their eyes, he is a reminder of all they have lost, of who they have lost. But he has a heart that is filled with love and life and forgiveness. When Hannah asks Frank how he can get past all of their hatred he responds, "You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day, all the time. You have to keep remembering the bad things. It's too much work." She remembers what Frank says and chooses to forgive Tom and Isabel for taking her child.
While watching this movie, after hearing that line, I just wept. Yes, for the characters, yes for my own inability to sometimes forgive others. But what the majority of my tears were for was the fact of Jesus' forgiveness for us all. He only had to forgive once; for all of us, for all of our sins. God chose to cast our sins away, as it says in Psalm 103:12, "He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west." (TLB) And because of that decision, it is not hard work for Him to not remember. He has chosen to forget, He has chosen to blot our sins out with the blood of His Son, and since God cannot lie He remembers them no longer. All it rests on is our making a choice. Just as where the Indian and Southern oceans meet, although fictitious in the movie, in reality Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. At diverse times of the year the differing ocean currents, waves and swell patterns are evident in the waters around Cape Leeuwin. And therein lies the danger and the need for a lighthouse. What current will you be in? What current will you choose to follow? We can be swept away by the mores and standards of the world and live our lives based on our feelings and emotions or we can enter into the current that carries us into God's will. There is a lighthouse shining in the dark. Just as the lighthouse keeper kept that light shining throughout the dark of night, throughout storms and tempests, Jesus is a beacon to us now. He is that light radiant in the gloom of life. He is that signal, that guide showing us the way to safety. He is that watchtower ablaze with life and hope and peace. When all seems darkest, when you cannot find the way. When peace eludes you. When confusion seems to swirl around you. When you cannot get past the hurts and injuries that others have caused you, seek the Light. He will show you the way to Life, and that life will be abundant with all the goodness that comes with His love.
Picture from Pixabay.com, attributed to EvgeniT
You see these poor broken people. Tom being saved by the love of Isabel. Isabel being saved by Tom's sacrifice. The baby being saved by them both. Long story, beautiful movie. They find out the birth mother is still alive and has been grieving the loss of her husband and child. Tom cannot live with the burden and finally they are found out. If you have not seen it I won't give away the whole plot, but Hannah the birth mother must make some difficult decisions.
Many of us spend our whole lives trying to do what it is not our job to do. We make decisions out of our pain. We react to circumstances rather than seek God's will as to what to do. We try to be savior to our loved ones, when we cannot possibly carry that burden. We hide our hurts, bury our misery, ignore our agony all the while not quite fooling ourselves. We live between two worlds. The world where we are captain of our own ship and the world where we give all to the Lord. Much like that isle in the movie. A barren, windswept rock between the Indian and Southern oceans. And on that rock stands a lighthouse. The question is, when we see that light, what do we do?
In the movie, there seems to be no save haven for any of them. The pained soldier trying to come to grips with a chance at life after so much destruction. The young woman who cannot carry a child to term. Or the bereaved widow who has lost husband and daughter. Hannah is caught in a horrible place. Can she forgive these people who seem to have taken so much from her. She is shown reminiscing about her husband Frank, a German who is hated by the local townsfolk. In their eyes, he is a reminder of all they have lost, of who they have lost. But he has a heart that is filled with love and life and forgiveness. When Hannah asks Frank how he can get past all of their hatred he responds, "You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day, all the time. You have to keep remembering the bad things. It's too much work." She remembers what Frank says and chooses to forgive Tom and Isabel for taking her child.
While watching this movie, after hearing that line, I just wept. Yes, for the characters, yes for my own inability to sometimes forgive others. But what the majority of my tears were for was the fact of Jesus' forgiveness for us all. He only had to forgive once; for all of us, for all of our sins. God chose to cast our sins away, as it says in Psalm 103:12, "He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west." (TLB) And because of that decision, it is not hard work for Him to not remember. He has chosen to forget, He has chosen to blot our sins out with the blood of His Son, and since God cannot lie He remembers them no longer. All it rests on is our making a choice. Just as where the Indian and Southern oceans meet, although fictitious in the movie, in reality Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. At diverse times of the year the differing ocean currents, waves and swell patterns are evident in the waters around Cape Leeuwin. And therein lies the danger and the need for a lighthouse. What current will you be in? What current will you choose to follow? We can be swept away by the mores and standards of the world and live our lives based on our feelings and emotions or we can enter into the current that carries us into God's will. There is a lighthouse shining in the dark. Just as the lighthouse keeper kept that light shining throughout the dark of night, throughout storms and tempests, Jesus is a beacon to us now. He is that light radiant in the gloom of life. He is that signal, that guide showing us the way to safety. He is that watchtower ablaze with life and hope and peace. When all seems darkest, when you cannot find the way. When peace eludes you. When confusion seems to swirl around you. When you cannot get past the hurts and injuries that others have caused you, seek the Light. He will show you the way to Life, and that life will be abundant with all the goodness that comes with His love.
Picture from Pixabay.com, attributed to EvgeniT