A Million Dreams

I saw the movie The Greatest Showman for the first time last night.  I know...I finally moved out of the 1% group ... the percentage group of people who haven't seen this movie... anyway...

The thing is that I enjoyed the film way more than I ever thought I would.  I am particularly in love with the scene where the main characters, P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) and his wife, Charity (Michelle Williams) dance and sing the song "A Million Dreams."

I think that is such a beautiful scene...flawlessly performed.  It is so amazing I had to research whether the actor/actress duo had really done it or if it was all computer design and animation.  They actually danced and singed the whole scene, much to their credit.  The thing is...what truly enraptured me and causes me to replay this particular scene over and over and over again tirelessly is the fact that it illustrates the freedom one finds in love.

The daring dance moves, the pure joy, the carefree and total abandonment seen in Charity are a perfect visual of how love can set you free!

Of course the scene is about romantic love between husband and wife.  Of course the scene is about how the wife is completely in love with her husband.  Of course the scene is about the exhilarating joy that overflows one's soul, heart and body when we have found the one we want to share our dreams with...of course the scene is about the fact that she fully and totally trusts him...enough to feel as if she can fly!

She trusts him enough to know that she is, indeed, free enough to attempt gravity defying jumps...because she knows he will be there to catch her if she falls...or rather, because she knows he will not let her fall...

However, the more I watch that scene I realize there is only one love like that:  the love of Our Lord!  There is no wonder one of the most common analogies of the love of Christ for the Church is that of marriage.  The often imperfect love and bond between husband and wife is the closest we can get here on earth to the relationship between Jesus and us...the good news is, that whereas earthly marriages fail and crash miserably... the marriage established in the Bible is the one that is meant to be forever...the one for which a man will leave his mother and father to join his woman until death causes physical separation while at the same time, bonds them together in spirit for all eternity.

Christ loves His bride so much He'd rather die for her than let her fall and be lost.

That's the kind of love that makes us light as a feather.  That's the kind of love that makes us dance on the ledge of a building and jump into His arms.  That's the kind of love that makes us spin around without getting dizzy.  That's the kind of love that breaks our chains and frees us to be who we were designed to be.  That's the kind of love that tears down walls and lets the light shine in!  That's the kind of love that rescues us from the pit.  That's the kind of love that pulls us out of the depths of the sea into the surface so we can finally breathe!

That's the kind of love that sets us free so we can fearlessly and courageously do His work, accomplish His purpose, walk along His path, fulfill His plan until we finally jump into His loving arms.

I will continue to have "a million dreams" about this movie and its magic; but I pray that each and everyone of those dreams guide me to the kind of love that leads to perfect trust in the One who gave it all...for me.