The first movie I ever saw was Bambi. My dad took me to to the theater and I enjoyed it so much that he bought the vinyl LP so I could listen to the film's dialog along with the songs on my little record player. It was a decision he must have lived to regret as I played it continuously. "Drip, drip, drop little April showers....." must have driven both of my parents mad.
When Bambi's mother doesn't return to the thicket after the gun shot in the field, my young heart always ached. I believe it was the first time I ever felt pain. Through the scratches and warped speaker, it was a traumatizing moment each time I heard Bambi's baby-like voice shouting for joy that he had made it back safe to their hidden home in the forest only to realize the horror. That his mother had not.
"Mother?"
Each time I waited.
And always he came.
The deep, strong voice of Bambi's father speaking assurance into his son's fragile heart. And waves of comfort and peace would wash away my hurt. Bambi's father had been watching out for him all along, and had come to rescue his young buck. It made the death of his mother so much easier for my impressionable mind to endure.
Little did I know that in those quiet playtimes in my bedroom sitting by the old record player amongst dolls and dishes, my imagination had been shaped into the reality for the existence of God.
I knew he would come for me.
Although it would be years before I answered the call, I never resisted the belief in an all-loving, all-powerful Father. I welcomed the thought.
God was preparing my heart.
We have to be crushed first by the bad news of the gospel before we can fully accept and welcome the good news. We have to wrestle with the dreadful, agonizing reality of the human condition, being born in sin without hope, before we can fall on our knees in repentance and tears, overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of an all loving, sovereign Father welcoming us home through the atoning, redeeming sacrifice of his Son Jesus.
It's intriguing and humbling what God uses in our lives to draw us to him.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." Luke 15:20
Happy Father's Day Weekend 💙
