Finding Nemo.

Yes, my life is currently consumed by moments as they are normally lived, everyday, by almost-three-year-olds. The applications I pick up in the world around me each day are, right now, found in things that I wouldn’t really see in my own day-to-day goings on. Hence the reference to Finding Nemo.

Frankly, I forgot I even had the movie. We had some other plans yesterday which had to be scrapped due to rain, so I was scrounging around for a different fun thing to do. Ladybug was tired, and a little crabby, so I was trying to find something that would calm her and redirect her grumpiness. It was a happy surprise to find Nemo because she really loves it.

I hadn’t seen it in a LONG time, and even then not all the way through. We started the movie in the morning, then picked it back up before bedtime and sat together in the rocker to watch.

There is one part where Dory (the Blue Tang) and Marlin (the Clown Fish who is searching for his lost son) end up in the belly of a whale. Dory always rolls with the punches, perpetually happy, even though she suffers short-term memory loss (or maybe because of it!), but Marlin is highly over-protective (how he lost his son in the first place), over-controlling, and uptight about everything. Dory, thinking she can “speak whale” begins to converse with the whale and translate for Marlin. Here’s a (very low quality) clip:

That really gets me. Sometimes we hold on to our own opinion with such a firm grip that we begin to perceive it as the only possibly truth. It becomes our gospel and everyone else is considered crazy who doesn’t agree. Perhaps we should consider that God has given someone we trust a message, for us, to wake us up. Maybe He’s given them eyes to see into a certain situation, or the ability to understand a language we can’t quite comprehend, for the express purpose of freeing us from our own choke-hold.

I don’t know about you, but that’s some tasty, movie-popcornesque, food for thought this day, and I’m thankful for it.

Maybe the rain itself was sent from Him to get me to let go of my own strict schedule. To let me know I’m not really in control. Maybe He knew Marlin wasn’t the only one who needed to hear from a slightly frazzled, highly adorable, little blue fish.

“For the life of every living thing is in his hand,and the breath of every human being.” Job 12:10 NLT

“If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today, God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God…” Deuteronomy 28:1 MSG

“God always answers, one way or another,even when people don’t recognize his presence.” Job 33:14 MSG

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21 ESV