I watched an old movie on YouTube last night. It was about a Jewish family separated by the Nazis and the war. Half in America, half in Poland. It was about the damage the war caused to them, individually and as a family. The theme was how to heal from all that pain, from changing traditions, from memories that kept haunting them.
This movie didn't have all the blood and violence of war and detention camps. It was sharing the pain of recovering, and the hurt that our pain causes others - especially within families. This was many years of their lives coming to a single turning point.
Finding lost loved ones, not knowing if those left behind before the war were alive or dead, dealing with the "what-ifs" about their past - what might have changed if they acted differently, these were the difficulties of recovery for this one Jewish family.
It was another movie about how persecution affects the rest of our lives. It made me thing again about what those who hate GOD will do to our lives... including death.
The name of the 1992 movie was "Miss Rose White," if you want to watch it yourselves. The main star was Kyra Sedgwick, who played the part of Rose.
Hollywood always has a purpose in making movies. I never thought about the subtleties under a movie's contents before I grew up and then realized the messages hidden in them. Mostly about cultural change. I wouldn't say the goals of Hollywood were good. It seems to be Satan appearing as an angel of light most of the time... making evil look good, harmless, fun.
In this movie, the cultural change was Miss Rose White. She had changed her Jewish name to the title name in order to fit into the" modern" culture where she existed. She was determined to have a career, not wed or have children. To her family (father) she seemed to be fully Jewish. Hiding the differences was the way she lived.
Bringing lost family into her private world created the battles of the movie, and also became the path to healing.
I suppose this is the formula for a movie, but the details are where Hollywood lives. What the characters say. What is seen on the walls behind the main characters. The way they live.
I see all of this changing as each generation reaches moviedom. Look at the internet today. What does "the entertainment industry" decide is worth spending money on to get your attention?
I don't want to continue with this. It's depressing me. I long for a more protected world. I don't want to fight these battles every time I try to watch or read or listen to something. How can we live in this world and not be entangled by it? I don't know. I keep trying to find my own answer.
When I get so caught up in the troubles we face, I begin to pray for GOD's help - for me, for my sons, for my extended family, for my fellow Christians and Jews. I seek GOD so often it seems there will never be an answer.
People of Faith have always faced these moral issues. We battle the best we can. Our generation is at an unusual turning point in spiritual history. How will we stand in faith against the powers that lead up to the Antichrist? How will we stand in our faith when death is the only path?
I hope you are thinking about this, too. That kind of faith doesn't just happen in a moment, we have to have it before the crisis hits.
In Christ,
Deborah Martin
