I didn’t prepare what I was going to say ahead of time, which is unusual for me. All I knew was that I wanted to read from Revelation 21. My hope is that these words honored both Jesus and Zeke.

Our son was so photogenic, even up to the very end. As a toddler, he was always hamming it up for the camera. I sorted through hundreds of pictures and video clips to try to tell the story of his short but powerful life as best I could.

The music we chose for the video is “Your Great Name” by Natalie Grant. This song has a very special place in the life of our family, and Breena would sing it to him often in order to soothe him. He always responded to the sound of her singing with peace and joy.

For those of us who grew up in a LEGO world, this is the LEGO movie we’ve been waiting for. There are already several LEGO movies, of course, many of which my son has found on Netflix. There is a Batman movie, a Clutch Powers movie, an entire Ninjago television series, and many others. This big screen adaptation, however, is not limited to a specific set or brand of LEGO, nor is it animated in the same way. It looks like it’s stop motion, but it’s really CG with stop-motion principles and rules.

The brilliance of The LEGO Movie, though, is in its story. It’s not simply a kids’ movie, though it does urge adults to be more childlike. The movie celebrates the triumph of participatory imagination over controlling enshrinement, of play over mise-en-scene. Lord Business (Will Ferrell) is bent on freezing everything and everyone perfectly in place with his nefarious weapon, the Kragle. Emmet (Chris Pratt), the ill-equipped Special and fulfiller of prophecy, and his rag-tag team of master builders must stop Lord Business using the mysterious Piece of Resistance before he unleashes his weapon on Taco Tuesday.

The jokes are playful but the insight is deep. Lord Business represents the inclination we develop as we grow older – to control, to create merely to look upon rather than to engage in hands-on play. The LEGO world, the world of our imaginations, needs to be set free. In wisdom we must become adults, but in imagination we must remain as children. The childlike imagination demands participation, interaction, and invention. We don’t simply create a world and stand back from it, like the god of deism. Rather, like the God of Christianity (though not to the same extent, of course), we create a world and enter into it. The need to control stifles our imaginations, throwing us to the mercy of the instruction manual. But a child whose imagination has been set free is not bound by such instructions. They are free to create and truly play.

This is what The LEGO Movie is about, and this is why it’s important for us adults to see, especially those of us with sons and daughters who love LEGO as much as we did. This is a hilarious, touching, even incarnational film about what it means to stay young even as we grow older.

I was at this event, and it was the first time I’ve had the pleasure to see and hear N.T. Wright speak live. My friend Joel and I sat very close, right next to two founding members of Mars Hill Bible Church (no, it wasn’t Rob Bell). It was a wonderful time, and I found Dr. Wright both brilliant and engaging. I encourage you to find an hour and watch this. Below you’ll find all my tweets from this event.

At #MarsHillBibleChurch waiting for NT Wright to speak. So excited!!

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

NT Wright is like 50 feet from me and now I know what it's like to be a teenage girl Belieber.

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

The story of the Bible doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

When Jesus comes out of the tomb on Easter morning new creation has begun. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

Jesus' kingdom is not from this world but it is for this world. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

God's judgment is neither capricious nor malicious but always in the service of good. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

Temptation to sin is a vile parody of the good thing God has for us to do. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

The most glorious thing that God did was go to Jerusalem one last time and give himself as a ransom for many. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

There is no room for comfortable passengers in the kingdom of God. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

We are sent out to be for the world what Jesus was for Israel. #NTWright

— Andrew Holt (@Andrew_W_Holt) November 21, 2013

And then my phone battery died. I think that was somewhere around the middle of the talk. Obviously I thought it was a great talk, and it really summed up the heart of N.T. Wright is all about. So if you don’t want to spend months and months reading the copious amounts of books he has written, you can take one hour sometime and watch this.

 

Can we all just agree that it’s not going to be a literal adaptation of the biblical story? Can we be gracious with the writers, actors, and director who may or may not have taken creative license with the story of Noah? Because this looks excellent, and I’m really excited to see it. Brothers and sisters, please don’t ruin it for me. It is, after all, art.