We are not trash!

   I recently saw the movie  "Toy Story 4" and was amazed at how well the story writers put together this movie.  It was an amazing movie I would even be willing to pay money to see again!  In the movie I caught hold of a message that I believe God had woven into the story line for us to see.

   In the movie, a new toy is created by the name of Forky.  The little girl, Bonnie, goes off to Kindergarten and while there she creates a little fork-person out of some items from the trash (Woody had collected them and put them on her table while she wasn't looking).   She takes a Popsicle stick, a Spork, some eyes, some gum and a pipe-cleaner and creates Forky.  She then writes her name his feet which were made of of Popsicle sticks.   Later on, when she is going home Woody is in the backpack with Forky and is shocked when Forky comes alive and starts talking.  This is the beginning of Woody's trials in the movie as Forky does not see himself as a toy, but instead sees himself only as trash and tries to throw himself into any trashcan he sees.   One night, while they are on a road trip in an RV,  Forky throws himself out the back window and Woody has to go after him because he means everything to Bonnie.   He tracks down Forky who is stuck in the dirt on the side of the road.  He pulls him out and begins a long trek back to the RV park.   During their hike, Woody spends time trying to convince Forky he is NOT TRASH but a TOY.  The turning point happens when Woody tells of his own prior owner Andy who loved him and wrote his name on him.  At that moment, Forky gets it!  He no longer sees himself as TRASH but a TREASURE and wants to get back to Bonnie.

    How much is our life in Christ like that of Woody and/or Forky.  How many times do we have people in our lives like Forky who don't see themselves as anything more than trash and throw themselves into the world's trashcan of drugs, alcohol, porn, hate, self-hatred, bad-relationships, crappy-jobs with no future, self-destruction and so much more.  We tell them that they are so much more than that to God.   God has written his name on them and he has written our names into the palms of his hands.


God writes in Isaiah 49:16:

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast    and have no compassion on the child she has borne? 

   I will not forget you!  

 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands"

    It is not really until we open up and tell our story to them that they get it.  Like Forky coming to an understanding of who he is when Woody tells his story of Andy and how it impacted his life and changed him so also we connect to others with the Gospel when we share with them how God's love  impacted us.  We are transformed in Baptism to being God's children and are marked forever as his own and nothing can change that!

   Finally, it is worth nothing that our attitude towards others should be the same as Woody's who recklessly loves Forky and throws himself out of the window to go after him because Forky means so much to Bonnie.  We too must recklessly love others and reach out to them because they mean so much to God also.  Because God loves them, we love them too.   Because God searches for them (Bonnie in the movie panics every time she cannot find Forky), we search for them too.

John  writes in 1 John 4:19:

    We love because he first loved us!