What Horton Heard (from March 19)

The new movie Horton Hears A Who! is not only hilarious, touching and beautifully animated, but it also presents a spiritual and ethical perspective that Dr. Seuss reportedly pondered as he created the original story. The central message is repeated several times: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” Even a “speck” has worth and value. Belief in the “invisible” is also a thread woven throughout the tale, as critical onlookers scoff at the main characters while proclaiming, “If you can’t hear it, see it or feel it, it doesn’t exist.” Horton and the Mayor of Whoville are both roundly derided as insane. But are they? I highly recommend the movie for its pure fun and for the deeper questions it raises.

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17)

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16)

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

“Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” (Hebrews 11:1, Amplified)

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

O God, creative, gracious and loving Savior, thank you that every life has value, no matter how small, and that fixing our eyes on Your unseen realities leads us into the richness of joy, hope and peace in Your presence. Amen.