Several years ago, when the latest round of Star Wars was returning to the big screen with “The Force Awakens” I was surprised at how giddy I was to see the movie. I am by no means crazy for Star Wars, studying all the characters, critiquing storylines, or reading fan fiction. I go and watch simply to be entertained.
My giddiness surprised me because it brought on such a powerful sense of nostalgia. I remember thinking “I wonder how many hours of my childhood were spent making lightsaber noises or imitating Darth Vader’s breathing and voice?” The answer of course, is too many. I recall many bloodied knuckles from lightsaber fights using sticks found in the woods.
Perhaps the most famous line in the Star Wars franchise is Darth Vader’s “No, I am your Father!”
Whoa!!! That single acknowledgement changed everything in the movies. This family storyline is so significant in fact that the 9 movies are together often referred to as “The Skywalker Saga”.
Adding a family storyline as broken and redemptive as we see in those movies was a pretty solid recipe for box office success. Humans are wired to rejoice in seeing families reunited. We are inexorably drawn into stories where people are once again brought into right relationship with one another.
Christmas movies are pumped out at a surprising rate using this exact same formula. My dad, who is a secret purveyor of these movies (at least until people read this!), can vouch for this. I think there is a very profound reason that Star Wars, rom coms, and Hallmark movies connect so well with people. We all carry with us a foundational need to be known and loved by others.
These movies capture this yearning well because they know we get our bearings on life and the world from those around us who have helped shape us. In many ways, we are defined by those that we are most often with. The family discord that plays out in so many of these movies resonates with our own longings to have redeemed and restored relationships with those who have played the biggest roles in our lives.
Buried in the deepest recesses of our souls and tied into everything we are and hope to be is our relationship with God. Our souls ache with a melancholic nostalgia for the way things were meant to be, the way things were in the Garden of Eden.
We were made to me with God. Whether we realize it or not, being “with” God remains our greatest need and deepest longing. When God announces the birth of Christ, we see the first movement of God to once again be “with” his people.
As we celebrate Christmas and as the name “Emmanuel” once again becomes familiar, I pray that we would take time to consider how deeply within our souls this family reunion resonates. In coming to us and being “with” us we are reconnecting with God in a way that echoes through eternity. It is what we were made for.
In the busyness of the weeks ahead let's not be so busy as to forget to be “with” God. The deepest parts of our souls long to rest with him so let's take full advantage of the opportunity.
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