The Impossible

Last night my wife and I watched the movie, “The Impossible.” Sound the spoiler alert alarm! The movie is about a family who vacationed in Thailand during the time of the Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 that caused massive tsunami’s in several different countries around the Indian Ocean, including Thailand. It is a well-made, emotionally intense movie. In the movie, the family is fathered by Ewan McGregor and mothered by Naomi Watts. After the tsunami strikes land, the family of 5 is split up. Miraculously they all survive the tsunami blast.

However, because the family has been split up by the tsunami, they have no idea if the other members of the family are alive or not. The bulk of the movie is spent tracking the respective family members while they all are trying to find each other. After days (about an hour or so of movie time) of relentless searching through hell and literal high water, the father spots his son that he has been searching for the entire film. The son looks up to see his father amid a crowd of wounded and dying people, as they make eye contact, their faces express an elation of joy and their spirits are overcome with emotion. They then begin to run towards each other shouting “Dad!” and “Lucas!” (the son’s name), respectively.

As I watched this scene unfold, I was swallowed up by my emotions. The relational ties of family was obviously a huge theme, along with human resilience. But while I watched the father and son embrace, my primary thoughts were on the gospel. I thought to myself that the way the father ran toward and grabbed up his son was a small picture of how God will embrace me on (and all who have been adopted into his family through Jesus) the day that I meet him.

For those who are in Christ, this is the type of greeting God the Father will have for us when we limp and stumble across the finish line. God radically embraces those who are his own. While we are wretched sinners, if we are washed in the blood of Jesus, we are no more seen as such by God. We are his beloved children with whom he is well-pleased. Christian, when you die, or when Christ returns, God will embrace you with an emotionally powerful love that is informed by the cross of Christ. Oh to hear God say of you, “my son” or “my daughter.”

As I’ve contemplated this embrace, I’ve realized this: one of the elements of the joy of the father and son finding each other is the realization that the pain and suffering is over. It’s done away with. They are together now.

So it is with God.

Christian, when you meet God, all your pain and suffering will be over. Whatever hurt and strife you have experienced, no matter the loss, and no matter the darkness, it will all be but a memory when we are physically united with God.