Rosemary and I have a tradition of going to a movie on, or close to Christmas Day. Based on the crowds we ran into yesterday while carrying out that tradition, we are not the only ones. We saw “It’s Complicated” because Rosemary likes Meryl Streep and I like Rosemary. It was an entertaining movie. As the New York Times review puts it: “Ms. Streep plays Jane Adler, a successful restaurateur who’s about to nest happily alone in an upscale Southern California coastal community, or so it seems. Divorced with three adult children who enjoy her company (the middle one is just moving out), Jane lives in a large house on a lush sprawl surrounded by trees and no visible neighbors. It’s such a bucolic vision you half expect a few deer, a couple of bunnies and the bluebird of happiness to swing by for a visit and a quick song.”
In short, this idyllic situation is disrupted because Jane has an affair with her ex-husband who is remarried to a younger woman. The movie is intended to be light and heart-warming, which it is; but it is also a sad reminder of the long lasting pain of divorce.
It also reminded me of what life is like without Christ. All of the characters are “successful” or well on their way toward success. The principal characters are about my age and so I can relate to the “looking back” and the “what if” perspective. It comes with the territory.
There are certainly things I would have done differently in my 60 years and many I could have done better. But, for me, there is no haunting sense of loss that the the characters in “It’s Complicated,” and much of the world, experiences.We are created to serve God and it’s His desire for us that we be born again as His Children through the sacrifice of His Son. Any other path is doomed to “complications.”
The Meryl Streep character is told by her friends that she “deserves” the fun of an affair, because she’s never done anything bad in her life. It seems she’s pour her life into her career and her children. And, relatively speaking, that’s not bad. But that’s also not the standard. Of course, the affair leads to complications in Jane’s life with her children and her blossoming new relationship. Her years of psychotherapy won’t do for Jane what walking with Christ would. Those of us blessed with a relationship with Him rest in his forgiveness and move in His will for us. We don’t dwell on the mistakes of the past and don’t drown in a a sea of regret.
It ain’t complicated at all. It’s just heavenly.
Be blessed.
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