Redemptive Movies (Maybe a Series?)

The longer I live, the more I seem to see the redemptive value in media and specifically, in this case, movies. A few examples of movies that I've watched of late that I have found spiritually redemptive elements include: Batman Begins, American Teen, and The Pursuit of Happyness. God used these movies in my life in one way or another.

A movie I saw for the second time last week, TAKEN, stirred something in me to the point that I thought I'd share my thoughts...

TAKEN

In this movie, a man’s daughter is kidnapped. The father races to find and rescue his daughter before she is gone forever. To find her, he must go to great extremes, putting his own life in great jeopardy to rescue her.

In this movie, I’m reminded of the fact that we have a God that is passionately in love with us and that he goes to great lengths to bring us into a relationship with him.

I’m also reminded that we are born as enemies of God, that in a sense, we have been “taken” from God by Satan. And God spends our whole lives trying to bring us back into a relationship with him.

I’m reminded in this movie, that God is a warrior. He is not weak. He is not a pansy. He fights for us. He wages war on our behalf even as our enemy seeks to “steal” us, “kill” us, and ultimately “destroy” us. (see John 10:10)

At the end of the movie, when the Father finally rescues his daughter and they embrace, they have this exchange of words…

Daughter: “Daddy, you came for me. You came for me!”
Father: “I told you I would.”

I found this exchange to be very powerful and probably quite similar to many exchanges that have taken place between spiritually lost children who have just been reunited with their heavenly Father.

Child of God: “Daddy, you came for me. You came for me!”
Heavenly Father: “I told you I would.”