Messy Game Night: Finding Nemo

Last night, Friday, was down at church to help out with an event for 5/6th graders. The night was called "Messy Game Night." The games were all loosely based on the film Finding Nemo. There is not many things more invigorating than watching children at play. Needless to say, the kid in the adults got into the act too by the end of the night. Can't say I've seen anything like it.

The youth pastor gave a talk using Finding Nemo as a point of reference. For those handfuls of people out in the blogsphere who haven't seen the film, the Pixar/Disney film is about a father clownfish trying to find his missing son. The film works at every level as humor and drama, a fish tale for kids and adults alike. Anyway, the natural tie in to Christianity is how God is trying to find us. Jesus told parables of the lost sheep (shepherd leaves the 99 to find the 1 lost one) and the lost coin (the woman sweeps her whole house to find the one coin) and of course the powerful story of the prodigal son and of the joy a father has in finding his lost son.

Christianity has its high level intellectual elements in its theology and history. But at its core, it is a love story: of God in love with us, trying to find us and bring us back into relationship.