WE BOUGHT A ZOO

          Do you ever watch a movie or read a book and then begin to notice those elements everywhere? No. Just me? I went to a Centrifuge camp as a middle schooler and remember the drama team using the word conglomerate in a game. I had never heard this word before and just assumed I would never hear it again. But the funny thing was, when I got home, this word began to pop up everywhere. Did the stars align and this word become popular? Nope. But I did start to notice the word alot more.

          I recently finished reading Wild at Heart, which is a great book on biblical masculinity, and the main ideas and themes are still vivid in my mind. Tuesday we rented We Bought A Zoo, and Friday night we sat down to watch it. What a great movie! I was drawn in and kept there through the whole film. But I'm not here to do a movie review. I'm here to connect the book I just finished to the movie I just watched. I feel as though God works that way sometimes.

          In WBAZ, the father and son are at odds. The father can't figure it out and they get into it one night. There is about 5 minutes of yelling and screaming at one another, and then they go to bed. The next day, the son approaches the father, they have a heart to heart, and their relationship completely changes. The son goes from dark and depressed to caring and passionate. What happened there?

          If you aren't careful, you will missed what they slipped into the movie. The father had neglected the son for so long, there was alot of pent up frustrations on both sides. The son's hurts needed to be recognized by his father, and the father needed to let his son know that he cared. Once this happened, albeit through the vehicle of a screaming match, their relationship was affirmed. The next morning, the son approached the father for advice about life. Never had this happened before. The father had bestowed masculinity onto his son. He was the only one that could do it. Once that happened, a young man was released. He was now able to pursue adventure, and the beauty.

          I wanted to rewind this moment again and again to see the connection point for dad and son. Dads are important. Real men who stand in the gap are needed. We don't need safety, we don't need the sure thing, we need men who will take the risk for the heart of his family and for his own heart. That's what I feel Benjamin Mee did for his family. Huge risk, huge payoff. God challenges us to push beyond what we know until we reach the unknown, and then trust God for what happens next.