Thoughts On Contact

It's funny what thoughts drop into your heart and mind when you take time to sit and listen.

I was in our rocking chair, quiet by the woodstove on a cool morning, when all the children had left for school. I had a welcome space in time for contemplation and prayer.

As I sat, listened and waited, a totally unexpected thought came, regarding a movie that Frank and I had recently watched.

The movie is 'Contact" with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. In the story, Foster plays a woman who is obsessed with making contact with life forces outside of our earthly realm. She has lost both her parents at an early age and has deep wounds. She is well educated and supported by funding from various governmental agencies.
The crisis takes place with contact happening, instructions for the making of some kind of travel machine being sent from the alien forces and Foster following through with all kinds of psuedo-support from scientists and government.
In the end it is she who agrees to take the ride, to possibly sacrifice her life and find out who's on the other end of the line.
When she arrives in this other place, a land vibrant with beauty, surrounded by water, luminous with stars, planets and an atmosphere that you can touch with your hand, she is completely overwhelmed. But the grand finale is that a being comes along the beach toward her, and as he draws closer, she recognizes her Dad.

She cries out and moves into his arms and they embrace, a child and father reunited after a lifetime apart.

But as they communicate she realizes that it isn't really him, but an other-wordly being, presenting itself in the form of her father.

"We thought this might make things easier for you," he said.

The being had presented himself as her father, in order to make the transition smoother, in order to facilitate recognition, in order to connect in a way she would understand and feel secure in.

And so they talked about the differences in their worlds and what it all meant, and she went back.

The end of the story is insignifigant to this particular blog, as the encounter on the beach with the being, is what consumed my mind as I sat in the rocking chair.

"That is what I did! I came in the form of a man so you would understand. That is the signifigance of the movie." This was the gentle, but pervasive thought that came as I sat there and I was stunned.

I wasn't thinking about the movie, but an answer came to a prayer I had prayed weeks ago, about what I was to grasp from this movie we had been asked to watch.

For what it's worth, I'm amazed. It doesn't matter what genre or medium is presented, God always shows up. He manifests the truth of who He is over and over.

There are other glaringly obvious statements in this movie too, but this is the one that was brought to my attention that morning on the chair, by the fire, in the quiet of the schoolday morn.

Philippians 2:6-11 Amplified Version

5Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]

6Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [^[b]possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not ^[c]think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped ^[d]or retained,

7But stripped Himself [of all privileges and ^[e]rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.

8And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!

9Therefore [because He stooped so low] God has highly exalted Him and has ^[f]freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name,

10That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee ^[g]should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11And every tongue [^[h]frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I only know that Jesus said "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

He stooped down and made Himself known to us. He revealed His qualities, and intentions in a way we would understand.
That's love, and I want to know more...and more.


"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:16-21).