It was 2025, and I was home for Christmas break. It was a crisp December night, and as I lay on my plush grey couch by my lonesome, I remembered my classmates rambling on and on about this movie titled “Interstellar.” I lifted myself up swiftly, grabbed my remote and immediately started playing it. I was completely enraptured by my 30-inch screen. This mind-boggling movie made me recognize how sacrificial love not only affects the people closest to you, but also the people outside of your inner circle.
The main character and father-figure in the film, Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, went to space to rescue the entire world due to a tragic famine that was taking over the earth. In order for Cooper to go on his expedition, he had to leave his son Tom (Timothée Chalamet) and his daughter Murphy “Murph” (Jessica Chastain) behind. Murph did not understand why he had to go, and she fought for him to stay. She tried to explain why he should not leave; however, Cooper did not listen and went anyway with his selfless goal in mind.
Cooper got trapped in space and was not capable of making it back home when he had hoped, which is one of the emotional cruxes of the film, causing him to miss out on his children’s lives. His son Tom grew up, met his wife and even had a child. While Cooper was on a one-way mission to save the world, he had to leave what he knew and miss out on the things he loved.
Eventually, through a bizarre time-defying communication with her father and reconciliation with her past, Murph finally understood why her father sacrificed himself. She realized how the sacrifice of his own life was necessary to save the world. My eyes began to stream tears down my face as I realized how this can relate to Christ’s love for the world. Jesus left Heaven and came down to earth in order to save the world. Through his sacrificial love and humility, he gave up his own life and experienced pain, loss and hardships throughout his time on earth. Cooper, through his sacrifice, also experienced these losses.
When reflecting on this movie, Philippians 2:3-4 rings in my head. The verse reads, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Cooper, through his own humility, valued other people above himself. His own love for his children drove him, but also his concern for the world and the opportunity to perform the task he felt like he was born for drove him to fight. This movie reflects how broken the world is, and the impact love can have. The Lord’s love for the world is what ultimately saved it. Through prioritizing love, Cooper saved the world, a lesson he learned from Anne Hathaway’s character, Dr. Brand.
“Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can’t understand it.”
I began to realize, through watching secular movies, how many of them hold impactful stories and deeper meanings. Only a few nights ago, I remained couped up in my college dorm on a snowy evening and found myself glued to my caved-in ruggedcouch, which reminded me of all the fellow students that had lived a life there. As I reached for my remote, which became like a close friend to me, I found myself once again mindlessly scrolling through mediocre movie after movie.
Suddenly, I stopped pressing the buttons on my remote and found my eyes locked on the movie “Forrest Gump,” which was staring back at me from my TV screen. “I have not seen this movie in at least 12 years,” I thought. After a short debate with myself about whether I was emotionally prepared to watch it, I decided to be brave and began my 2-hour and 22 min. journey.
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) is the main character in this film. When he was young, he met his best friend Jenny (Robin Wright) on the school bus. She was the only person who was kind to him, but as they grew up, she became the most wishy-washy person in his life. Yet, through all her confusion and hesitation to love him, he held an undeniable love for her in his heart. Jenny never seemed to be able to make up her mind about Forrest, but she never left his mind. Through every trial he faced in his unique life, she always remained at the forefront of his every thought.
Jenny hurt Forrest time and time again, but whenever she called, he would answer. When she came running back to him, he would run faster to her. He was always the first person to pick her back up when she fell, and he loved her selflessly. Forrest was consistently self-sacrificing throughout the film. Forrest fought in Vietnam, and when his whole team got injured, he ran back to save them each individually. His goal was to save his best friend, Bubba, which he succeeded in, but rather than only saving Bubba, every soldier he came across he would pick up and bring them to safety. He risked his life for people who were at a high risk of losing theirs.
Forrest, throughout the movies, reflects humility and selflessness. Forrest loved people well, whether that was Jenny, Bubba or his crew. When watching this film, Jenny and Forrest’s relationship reminded me of my relationship with Christ. It reminded me of how the Lord constantly seeks me out and continuously loves me first. This reminded me of Romans 8:38-39. The verse says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In the way that Jenny would stray from Forrest, we stray from the Lord. However, Forrest’s love for her was unconditional, in the same way the Lord’s love is for us. God’s love is sacrificial, humble and unfathomable. These characters’ deep love guided me back to my first love – the Lord.
Be the first to comment