Children of Men
When my daughter was born--my first child--her entry into my world felt miraculous. Strictly speaking, it wasn't. It was the natural first flowering of human life, but birth up close demands attention, staggering the imagination. From what comes life? We know the science, but not the why of it. When I first held her, awe and worship is all that really came to mind. Worship not of nature or of some primal urge fulfilled, nor of destiny, but of God.
When Jesus was born, it was in a backwater place, a forgotten little town like millions of others now around the globe. Women had babies everyday, and life was hard, normal, uneventful except for those personal things human beings treasure. But then, a young girl had a conversation with a man who matter-of-factly said he was from God. She said okay, and the Messiah came.
Having recently gone through another advent season, written another Christmas play, sharing another round of gifts under the tree, I have to admit its hard to grasp what Jesus' coming meant at the time. I haven't yet seen The Nativity Story so I'm not sure what its impact will be. Apparently it's received mostly strong reviews.
Now I'm sitting in the movie theatre last Saturday with Anjie and Daniel, all of us watching Children of Men. I don't know much about the film, other than having read that for many people, it strikes a chord The Nativity Story was trying to strike, supposedly doing so more effectively. Children of Men is the story of earth some twenty years from now. A mysterious infertility grips the world, procreation non-existent. No babies have been born on earth since 2009. Chaos rules every continent, collapsing societies under constant threat by militant revolutionaries of all stripes. Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is a British government worker thrust into the great adventure of his time: he is entrusted with a woman who has inexplicably become pregnant. He must get her to safety, taking her into the heart of a brutal world of desperate refugees in order to deliver her into the hands of "The Human Project."
(Warning: Spoilers ahead. If you don't want to know what happens, don't read.)
Two moments in the film stand out. The first is in a barn in which Kee, the Fuji woman who is pregnant, reveals her condition to Theo. The wonder in his eyes as he stands trying to comprehend what by this time is considered to be impossible. Suddenly, the stakes of the film shoot through the roof. The second, and most powerful moment in the film, is the day after the baby is born. A revolution has begun in the refugee camp that has been Theo and Kee's stopping place on the way to "The Human Project." The fighting in the camp is heavy and brutal. Theo and Kee are separated, and after a terrible hunt, Theo finds Kee and child on an upper floor of a building under siege by heavily armed government forces.
In the midst of the battle, Theo leads Kee away from her hiding place. Suddenly, cutting through the noise of mortar shells and gunfire comes a loud constant crying announcing to everyone there that this woman carries a newborn child. Theo and Kee continue on, and as soldiers storm up the stairs they are traveling down, the soldiers begin to scream for a cease-fire. The battlefield goes silent, and all stand in awe of what they perceive to be salvation for humanity. Hands fill the edges of the frame as the people reach out to touch the child and the mother. There is quiet, the soldiers in full battle regalia hushed, faces all filled with stunned rapture. Worship.
I suddenly saw the shepherds in my mind, the magi, Joseph and Mary all speechless before a child who should not have been born, yet was. The child was, as was the baby girl born to Kee, a world's Word of hope, a testament to the presence of God. Even the worst disasters of our time fall silent when that birth happens all over again in the heart of a man or woman paying attention when God walks by.
A beautiful film, I thought. Theo ends up giving his life to see the child to safety. I was disappointed, caught up in the moment, wanting along with everyone else to see Theo reach safety, enjoying the new life he'd helped usher in. But I should have known better. Birth requires death, and what greater love is there than to give up your life for the one who will save us all?
Theo, of course, is the Greek word for God.
...He so loved the world...
11:28:52 AM 
