By Jessilyn Lancaster
“Mommy, I want to follow Jesus in a boat,” my 5-year-old told me the day we saw LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
My son is autistic, and takes everything quite literally. He’s been asking a lot of questions about Jesus recently, about the parables, about how he can become a fisher of men when no one in our family has ever taken him fishing. We’ve presented the Gospel to him since the day he came home from the hospital after he was born. He goes to church, prays before every meal, can recite several Bible verses from memory, but he’s never taken the official step to ask the Lord to forgive his sins and wash him clean.
So we took him to see LIGHT OF THE WORLD in the theater, accompanied by his younger brother. The movie tells the story of Jesus becoming the Messiah from the perspective of the disciple John, who is depicted as a young boy who befriended Jesus almost on accident. For my children, seeing the simplicity of who Jesus is and what He came to do through the eyes of a child gave them a perspective I haven’t been able to capture before.
Director Tom Bancroft, who previously worked at Disney, explained it this way: “Being a child, I did not know what the word savior or God was. My parents never knew how to explain it to me and and that was that seed planted in me. And so I’ve learned the power of animation can plant seeds.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyAIU4vp83s
The movie transfixed my children — and me and my husband. Tears rolled down my face as I watched Jesus perform miracles, and I marveled at the God I serve. There were some scary moments that necessitated I take my younger son outside the the theater for a few minutes, but that didn’t negate the power for him.
“Do you like the movie?” I asked him while we waited for Pontious Pilate to trade Jesus for Barabbas. “Yes,” he smiled back at me.
“Do you see how the disciples follow Jesus, even when it’s scary?” I asked.
“Yes,” he smiled again.
“Do you want to follow Jesus?”
Once again, his eyes lit up as he bobbed his curly little head, “Yes!” he yelled loud enough for the people milling around in the lobby to hear him.
We made our way back into the theater as Jesus was brought down from the cross, and I could see my 5-year-old still enraptured by what was before him. He gripped my husband’s hand over his eyes, but was peeking through as John and the other disciples prepared to fish, contemplating how to move on with their lives now that their Messiah was dead.
My oldest son says he doesn’t want to follow Jesus because he doesn’t want to die. We asked him why he thought he would die, and he told us he didn’t want to drown. With his literal understanding of the Bible and Bible stories, we finally realized that he thought Peter drowned when he stepped out of the boat to walk on water to Jesus. This is why my son wants to follow Jesus in a boat. Spoiler alert: Peter doesn’t die. At least, not like this.
In LIGHT OF THE WORLD, Peter stepping out in faith toward Jesus is simply breathtaking. Even though fear creeps in, Jesus ultimately takes care of Peter. The presentation helped my son understand a bit more about what it looks like to follow Jesus. As the movie closed, my husband took my son’s hands and asked him if he was ready for Jesus to come into his life.
My son told my husband he will follow Jesus “next Saturday,” but agreed that “Whenever I’m ready, I’ll go straight to you, Daddy.”
But in the mean time, I’m thankful that beautiful, faith-filled, family movies continue to make inroads in the entertainment industry.
Read Next: Light of the World | The Directors Interview
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +1Share:
– Content: +1