The Book

Tonight was the first time in FOREVER that Pete and I got to go out on a date. My friend Jason was great enough to take on two MORE girls (ours + his) and let us have some grownup time! For that, I am very grateful.
We set off from Jason's house and went directly to Hobby Lobby...... Last night, I went to our church to try my hand at scrap booking with our pastor's wife and a few other ladies. I had a bit of stress to work through. I have to admit that scrap booking was rather therapeutic. So tonight I went and got a few supplies for me to use to finish working on Lyndi's baby album...you know, the one that I haven't ever gotten around to working on yet, despite the fact that Lyndi is now 3 years old! And just stuffing her baby pictures inside the front flap of the photo album doesn't really cut it huh?!!!
But our date did not stall out there!!! We had a nice dinner at Red Lobster. We got there about 5:30 so we were able to beat the real crowd!! whew! Then we went to see the movie "The Book of Eli". I really did not have any idea about what the story line was for this movie. I didn't know if it was a thriller, a drama, a comedy...whatever. I kind of figured from the death and destruction starting out that it probably wasn't going to be a romantic comedy. Although people did snicker during the first scene when Eli shoots a cat with a arrow...and makes dinner out of the kitty. But anyway.....
The movie was a good one, I think. It was thought provoking. I have some questions about it now that I've had time to think. Despite the fact that the main story line is that Eli has a Bible that he is trying to get to somewhere...and he will fight to the death to protect it...Eli doesn't really spend a lot of time talking about God. He mentions faith. He recites a couple of verses. Other than a few random mentionings of these things, that's about all of the religious topics put out there by the movie. I'm really kind of curious about that. Faith, prayer and the Book are mentioned. At one point Eli speaks the verse from the Bible that explains that we were made from dust and will return to dust.
As we were walking out, I kept wishing that I could know what others thought about that movie. What if many of the other viewers had no idea what the movie was supposed to be about, just like me? Were those viewers disappointed. Was the idea of God lost on them? Were they touched by God's word and power? Was a seed planted?
While walking out of the theater, I heard a young man behind us comment,"Man, that sure was cool when he smashed that guys head into the counter!!" I told Pete, "Sure, one could walk away with that message from the movie...or they could walk away with the message I got....(about God!!)" I think the whole concept was lost on that kid...or maybe he was just trying to seem cool in front of his friends, but secretly inside, he wondered about our Lord? I'd love to think that that was the case.
Too often these days, some people are trying their hardest to take God out of our lives. I read recently that educators in Texas were having to meet to discuss how they were going to write their history books. They were going to mention the creator of Mary Kay products. She was mentioned twice in a text book already. However, the conflict they were having was over how much they should mention about MLK's religious beliefs. Some groups that really believe in the separation of Church and State, felt like there should be no mention of the fact that MLK was a Christian. Also, they didn't think that we should mention any thing about our founding father's religious beliefs. They think that our founding fathers wanted to push Christianity. I always thought that our United States was supposed to be a place for religious FREEDOMS...we could worship polar bears if we wanted to...What do I know? But I do know this...MLK....he was Dr. Martin Luther King...the REVEREND Martin Luther King. His speeches were delivered to the congregation of his church and in other arenas. He was a Christian. Because of his Christian beliefs, that support peace, love and hope, he HAD A DREAM. But hey, if one person can go into the movie "The Book of Eli" and come out totally impressed that Eli smashed a guys face into a counter.....and I can leave out thanking God for being such an awesome, loving God.....Then, I can thank God that our founding fathers were courageous enough to separate from the Queen and create a New World where we have religious FREEDOMS!!