Have you seen the Disney animated feature “Brother Bear?”
If it weren’t for my recent transformation into a “Grandpa,” I probably wouldn’t have.
Now that I’m somebody’s “Grampa” I’m seein’ a lot of fascinating stuff.
Can you believe I’d never seen “Lady and the Tramp”? We’ll I hadn’t. That is until Marissa and Maddie showed up at our door with a DVD of it. Got me all choked up. I’m a sap when it comes to dog stories.
This “Brother Bear” isn’t among the better stories Marissa and Maddie have brought for me to see. They didn’t seem all that thrilled about it either. Marissa – five – preferred Shrek. Maddie – 3 – seemed more into princesses. Samuel, our three-year-old Grandson from England, got me into “Nemo.” Oh he loved Nemo. I think we saw it a dozen times while he was here.
But “Brother Bear” intrigued me. There is something in the spirituality of the natives, who are the human characters in the story, that has profound significance I think.
Some reviewers with a Christian worldview were concerned about these things. I’m not. Don’t get me wrong. I have no illusions that the bear and I are brothers in the same sense that our Sons are. One reviewer thinks we are. They – this is a reviewing Team – write, “This message of the connections that link us to others, even across species lines, is not new to Native Americans. They have been trying to get it across to other cultures for centuries.” My immediate response is to suggest that these reviewers visit the “Head-smashed-in Buffalo Jump” in Southern Alberta, Canada. Here they will quickly recognize that, though the natives of North America held the Buffalo, and other animals, in the highest regard they were in no way confused about who was ultimately “the greater” and “the lesser.”
The Buffalo and the Bear and other species of animal were valuable to Native Americans. They revered them and sought a respectful co-existence. But they did not hesitate, when the time for replenishment of food supplies came ‘round, to run a whole herd of Buffalo off a cliff for a mass butchering.
What I see in Brother Bear is the suggestion that love seeks to enter into the experience of another in ways that will enrich both loved and lover. I see the writers even toying with the idea that this is true whether he/she/it is one of us or not. The more subtle, and much more important, suggestion is that all life will be better for any attempt at love in the end.
I resonate with that. We don’t need to adopt the ancient myths that assume a solidarity with other species and ignores the superiority of humans. We must, though, recognize that the desire for cosmic harmony is not just wishful thinking; the desperate, futile imaginings of people caught in a very complex web of darkness, fear, and alienation.
The “totem” which makes a fearsome creature into a symbol of love, in this movie, is reminiscent of practices observed in many earlier civilizations. Peoples across the world and spanning many centuries of human existence came to believe that such a thing could really happen. Fearsome things, even gods, could be reconciled with their human counterparts. Man and bear could live together in harmony.
Christians believe this. In fact we believe it more profoundly than people of any other faith.
We, who embrace Jesus as the exclusive hope of all humankind, and “the whole creation” for that matter, must not forget that many of the great truths we’ve learned at the feet of our Master are also available to people who’ve never heard of Jesus. We have been taught repeatedly, in the Bible, that things about God can be learned simply by observing what he has made. People from primitive civilizations learned most, if not all, they know about the Divine in that way. And the mythical elements in “Brother Bear” tell us that somehow, in their meditations on these things in the natural world, they have come to believe that it would be a noble and good thing for a superior being to bring love, the most powerful force in the universe, to a lesser life form. Do we, who’ve had the privilege of sitting at the feet of the Master, believe such things happen? Other civilizations do. They even have myths about gods becoming human; gods dieing for some higher purpose.
Are you getting it? Don’t we followers of Jesus believe such things actually do happen? Our faith is founded on the fact that the one true God became a man. That he entered the human experience with what some felt was reckless abandon; “scandalous.” We further believe that he called what he was doing “love.” He said it was the most important; most powerful thing he could give us. We believe this God/man has lifted – is lifting – us humans, and the entire cosmos, up to a higher life form by doing so. He is empowering us to love with the kind of love he demonstrated in assuming the form of one of us. He is making it possible for us to fulfill the longing of all living things even the “cosmos” itself. An early Christian writer exulted in the incredible possibilities. “The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.” (See the Bible … New Testament … Letter to Romans … chapter 8 … verses 22 – 25 … THE MESSAGE version.)
The empty cross, once an embarrassing disgrace to our race, now the grandest of all symbols, is a reminder that when contemplation of God’s world moves someone to believe that cosmic harmony – the final reconciliation of all reality - is possible, they are not deluded or deceived. They have discovered in the nuances of this world the love, which is its Creator’s nature. Seeing and understanding what took place on that cross they will finally know that the reconciliation they’ve come to expect is the very reason our God became a man.
What a “teachable moment” for our kids … and grandkids! Especially at this Season when, once again, we celebrate the birth of this GOD who became … A MAN!
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