War Horse

A few days ago, I watched Spielberg's movie entitled "War Horse". 

The film traces the lives of many, from all walks of life, and from different nations, all singularly touched by a particular horse, Joey.

The movie got me thinking on many things - the futility of wars in settling the problem of man's heart. The Bible calls that problem sin. Sin causes selfishness, pride, and greed to grow from tiny seeds into huge mountains of evil. The human carnage depicted in the battles of the Great War was horrendous. 

How many fallen soldiers, on both sides, died and immediately entered the most horrible eternal state called hell? In my opinion, they had valiantly given their very blood and lives for their beloved land, heroically too ... only for most of them to plunge into hell, with no way out, ever. This thought gripped me more than just the mere scenes of explosions, screams, and dead bodies falling among the muddy trenches. 

Joey's experiences through the war provided a very intimate peek at the lives of those he came in contact with, however brief that may be. 

It raised thoughts of the issues people faced in life. 

Like that of Albert's dad, Ted, a veteran of the Second Boer War in South Africa. From that war, he accumulated not just medals, but a bad leg and a drinking habit. For all the "glory" of war, he lived out a hard life trying to make ends meet and provide for his family. Is this the tale of many vets of many wars too?

Then there's the vivid and instructional charge of the calvary into a hail of German machine gun fire. For me, it's the tragedy of foolhardy courage in the face of mechanical weaponry. Is this a lesson in the need to adapt to changing times? The trench warfare and the introduction of lumbering tanks just added weight to this thought.

What about that of sending teenagers into war? The story of 14 years old Michael and his brother Gunther? They went AWOL, were found and shot in cold blood. Should they have been subjected to death by a firing squad? Did the two really understood the implications of signing up with the army? 

I can't forget the little French girl, Emilie, orphaned and raised by her grandfather. She has such a spunk about her! It's about two people, in the face of war and battles that encroached upon their lives, whether they like it or not. As if the loss of her father and mother was not enough, war added a greater gloom. And yet, Emilie and her grandfather made do, and found respites of laughter and joy amidst such times.   

I felt profoundly moved by the movie because it gave me a sense of the fleetingness of life, and it made me question whether many of the issues the world fights for is truly worth the death of countless lives.

I'm not an anti-war proponent, neither am I for wars. At the bottom of the barrel called the human heart, is sin. Sin causes wars, causes the breakdown of society at many levels. And I know that Jesus Christ is the only cure for sin, by His death on the cross. 

I believe the world will be a better place only when the war against sin is totally won in every human heart. The victory at the cross and Jesus' resurrection from the grave is the one good news - reconciliation with God, which then makes possible the reconciliation among people. 

War Horse was more than a movie for me. It made me think. It held up the value of life against a backdrop of death. 

Have you watched War Horse yet?