The Journey 216: Family Movie Night
Read: Genesis 50
Ice Age 4 has arrived and has already created records of all sorts. It is slowly turning out to be a big grosser movie and winning the hearts of people who are now thronging the movie halls to watch the movies. Ice Age once again brings back the fearless team of Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. The story is all about separation of the team from the rest of their family and friends due to the shifting continents. The team has to travel through the seas in their search for their home land, and in this search for the homeland they have to encounter pirates who tries to foil their plan and finally the family all have to meet at vantage point after a long struggles before they are united. What Ice Age 4 exhibits is the expression and the importance of creating strong family bonds and the principles that friends in need are friends in deed. This movies is supported and released by the Dove Foundation whose mission is to encourage and promote the creation, production, distribution and consumption of wholesome family entertainment. Movies like Ice Age brings to the fore the concept of not only family entertainment but also family togetherness and the inculcating of good values through the medium of movies. There was a time when movies could only be seen in a movie house, but with the growth of cable television, one could watch movies in the comforts of a home. But with the growth of technology and with the arrival of gadgets like I Pad and other tablets, movies now can be watched on the go and also in a very secretive and personal confinement. We live in an age where parents will not know what their children are watching since each of the kids has personal tablet or a laptop. This has brought about a great change not only in our attitudes and values but also the way family functions. Hence Ice Age represents a turning back to family values and the strengthening of family bonds. How can we do that. We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living”. The passage the we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 50. This is a passage that shows the union and reconciliation of brothers in a family. The whole story revolves around Joseph and his brothers. The immediate context of the incident is that their father Jacob is dead and the brothers now fear for their life. Joseph is now in a position of authority and they fear that Joseph will punish them for the harm that they did to Joseph when he was a kid. But Joseph does not have vengeance in his mind he has only forgiveness and reconciliation in his mind. What Joseph does through his spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation is that for him the needs and unity of the family is more important than his personal and selfish needs. He wants his family to be together, be united and have a strong bonds irrespective of what happened in the past. This is what we need to do today also. We need to affirm in the concept that “Family Matters” to me and to everyone. Joseph’s brothers all had selfish and individual needs and that is what fragmented their family, but Joseph only had the goodness and the well being of his family and it was this attitude that brought the brothers together and united the family also together. Movies like Ice Age stresses the need of family values and also when we are able to watch movies like Ice Age we also come together as family to spend time and strengthen the bonds of the family. It is on Saturday’s that people tend to relax and sit to watch a movie. Let us take efforts that we shall do more things collectively rather than individually so that in the process we strengthen our family and affirm that “Family Matters”
Rev.Dr.Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Ice Age 4 has arrived and has already created records of all sorts. It is slowly turning out to be a big grosser movie and winning the hearts of people who are now thronging the movie halls to watch the movies. Ice Age once again brings back the fearless team of Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. The story is all about separation of the team from the rest of their family and friends due to the shifting continents. The team has to travel through the seas in their search for their home land, and in this search for the homeland they have to encounter pirates who tries to foil their plan and finally the family all have to meet at vantage point after a long struggles before they are united. What Ice Age 4 exhibits is the expression and the importance of creating strong family bonds and the principles that friends in need are friends in deed. This movies is supported and released by the Dove Foundation whose mission is to encourage and promote the creation, production, distribution and consumption of wholesome family entertainment. Movies like Ice Age brings to the fore the concept of not only family entertainment but also family togetherness and the inculcating of good values through the medium of movies. There was a time when movies could only be seen in a movie house, but with the growth of cable television, one could watch movies in the comforts of a home. But with the growth of technology and with the arrival of gadgets like I Pad and other tablets, movies now can be watched on the go and also in a very secretive and personal confinement. We live in an age where parents will not know what their children are watching since each of the kids has personal tablet or a laptop. This has brought about a great change not only in our attitudes and values but also the way family functions. Hence Ice Age represents a turning back to family values and the strengthening of family bonds. How can we do that. We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living”. The passage the we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 50. This is a passage that shows the union and reconciliation of brothers in a family. The whole story revolves around Joseph and his brothers. The immediate context of the incident is that their father Jacob is dead and the brothers now fear for their life. Joseph is now in a position of authority and they fear that Joseph will punish them for the harm that they did to Joseph when he was a kid. But Joseph does not have vengeance in his mind he has only forgiveness and reconciliation in his mind. What Joseph does through his spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation is that for him the needs and unity of the family is more important than his personal and selfish needs. He wants his family to be together, be united and have a strong bonds irrespective of what happened in the past. This is what we need to do today also. We need to affirm in the concept that “Family Matters” to me and to everyone. Joseph’s brothers all had selfish and individual needs and that is what fragmented their family, but Joseph only had the goodness and the well being of his family and it was this attitude that brought the brothers together and united the family also together. Movies like Ice Age stresses the need of family values and also when we are able to watch movies like Ice Age we also come together as family to spend time and strengthen the bonds of the family. It is on Saturday’s that people tend to relax and sit to watch a movie. Let us take efforts that we shall do more things collectively rather than individually so that in the process we strengthen our family and affirm that “Family Matters”
Rev.Dr.Joe Joseph Kuruvilla