the one about a movie

I just watched a movie on Netflix that I’d never heard of before-The Rebound*. It stars Catherine Zeta Jones and Justin Bartha. I liked him from National Treasure and I’m a closet romantic comedy fan, so I watched over the course of a few days while I did dishes, ironed, etc.

*[Disclaimer: the movie is rated R which is normally against my rules. It has language and one sex scene]

Long story short, Aram and Sandy fall in love. Aram is 25 and Sandy is 40. She ends up leaving him after a pregnancy scare because of the age difference. She encourages him to travel the world and live. He does just that. There is a 5 minute montage of Aram in Paris, Bangladesh, Istanbul, on safari in Africa, teaching cute orphan kids to write; in short, the dream of every 20 something. And this life, the life of a wandering traveler is held to be the prize of culture. Sandy discovers in the end, like Aram knew all along, that love is better than the world.

I am blessed that I did get to travel the world in my 20s. I’ve sat on unspeakably beautiful beaches in Queensland, hung out with cute orphan kids in Zambia, joined in on a village dance in remote Ethiopia, stood at Poseidon’s Temple as the wind whipped through my hair,  and ate falafel from a food cart on the shores of the Galilean Sea.

I’ve also loved deeply and started a family of my own. I have a husband I adore and two daughters who are happiness personified.

 
However, neither is the answer. Although traveling is great fun and having a family is rich beyond measure, relying on either to fill you up will leave you empty and alone.

Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the only one that satisfies. When traveling is done, when family is miserably hard, when life raises questions for which you can find no answers, Jesus is the only truth that sustains and the only joy that is everlasting.