Mary Poppins ~ A Call to Love

Mary Poppins ~ A Call to Love

Mary Poppinns is a movie about a magical nanny that shows up when needed and leaves when the family has learned the necessary lesson she is there to teach. For the Banks family the family needed to love one another and let that love spread out from them to the entire community. Mr. Banks was the one who needed to learn the most. He needed to learn to stop and listen to the call for attention and love from others. He needed to learn to listen to his children and their needs.

While at the D23 Expo I had the pleasure of listening to Richard Sherman, ½ of the Sherman Brothers team that wrote the music for Mary Poppins. What was amazing is hearing him talk about one particular song, Feed the Birds. He spoke lovingly of how he and his brother Bob had played a series of songs for Walt Disney and when finished Walt walked over to the window overlooking the studio lot and said, “Play that bird song again.” So they did. After hearing it again Walt softly spoke, “That is the entire point of the movie. Love, caring and helping others.”

From the first time Walt heard “Feed the Birds” it was his favorite song. When Walt was having a bad day, or later when he was ill and not feeling well he would call “The Boys” (Richard and Robert Sherman) into his office and ask them to play “the Bird Song” for him. Richard Sherman said it brought him peace and made him happy.

Here are the lyrics of Feed the Birds:

Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul’s

The little old bird woman comes.

In her own special way to the people she calls,

“Come, buy my bags full of crumbs.”

“Come feed the little birds, show them you care,

And you’ll be glad if you do –

Their young ones are hungry, their nests are so bare;

All it takes is tuppence from you.”

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.

“Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries,

While overhead, her birds fill the skies.

All around the cathedral, the saints and apostles

Look down as she sells her wares;

Although you can’t see it, you know they are smiling

Each time someone shows that he cares.

Though her words are simple and few,

Listen, listen, she’s calling to you –

“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag

(interlude)

Through her words are simple and few,

Listen, Listen, she’s calling to you –

“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.”

This song, this sequence, this character (the Bird Lady) is key to the entire story and the enduring success and warmth of this movie. It calls us to a higher purpose and reminds us to love. We as broken, damaged people yet we know we should love and we want to love. We just need the reminder. This song calls out to those hearing the Bird Lady to stop and take the time to care about something/someone outside of themselves. Even is a small way.

There is also a call to us “Birds” that are in need. The Birds gather when the Bird Lady is calling out for help. We should not reject offered help when we need it. It is a blessing for those giving as it is a blessing for us to receive.

In John 15:9-13 Jesus says,

Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: stay in my love. If you follow my directions, you shall live in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and live in His love. I say these things to you that my joy will be in you, and that you will be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no man that this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.

Jesus is saying that love comes from God and to Him and then to us. It is His command – rule – order for us to love others. This is a rule that only brings us joy to comply with. If we follow these directions we will live in love and our lives will be complete.

So when you hear the call to care do so when you can. Feed the Birds, show you care. Is there a neighbor that needs their walk shoveled after the snow? Is there someone that needs a meal dropped off because they are busy taking care of a sick family member or suffering a loss? How about just a smile! Did you know a smile is worth more than a million dollars to someone lost and hurting?

How will you “Feed the Birds” today?

Meet the Robinsons - Keep Moving Forward

Meet the Robinsons – Keep Moving Forward

The end of a year is here. Now it is time to look back and see what has happened in the past year. Was 2013 a good year? Did you succeed at your goals? Did good things happen to make you happy like marriages, births and new friendships? Was 2013 a bad year? Did you fail at your goals? Did you suffer a loss of a loved one or have financial problems? Either way it is time to, Keep Moving Forward! Out of the past of success or failure onto new challenges and heights.

I’ll not give a description of this movie here as I’ve already done so in another post here on Pixie’s Faith. In that post I talked about being adopted into the family of God. In this I’m going to talk about another lesson to learn from the movie, “Keep Moving Forward.”

Here is a link to the past post if you wish to learn more about the movie:

http://pixiesfaith.blogspot.com/2013/12/meet-robinsons-adopted-into-gods-family.html

I will restate one important plot point of the movie, “Keep Moving Forward”. All Lewis wants to do is look back but he finds peace and happiness once he realizes he needs to keep moving forward. Once he stops looking to the past for solutions to his hurt he finds freedom to move on and grow into the person he truly wants to be.

The catch phrase “Keep Moving Forward” comes from a quote of Walt Disney

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long.

We Keep Moving Forward, opening up new doors and doing new things,

because we’re curious . . . and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

~ Walt Disney ~

It is also a lesson taught in the Bible as well. God does not wish us to dwell in the past and let it stop us from growing and enjoying. Learn the lessons of the past but don’t stay there. Realize God has plans for us and they are for our good not our demise.

Lewis needed to forget the past hurt of being abandoned by his mother and move forward so he could accept the love of the family he finally came to have. Just like Lewis there are good things ahead if we leave the past behind.

Isaiah 45:18-19

Forget the former thinks; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has call me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Lewis felt lost, alone and like he was wondering in the wilderness. Why? Because he was focused on the past, the loss of his mother. Once he let that go he was able to move forward.

Goob is an example of what happens when you hold to tightly onto the past and do not move forward. He was so stuck in what happened when he fell asleep and missed the ball that it destroyed him and he tried to destroy others. He was so stuck he did not see that people were reaching out to him and moving on even if he did not. (Example is he said the team rejected him after the game when in fact there is a scene where a boy asks Goob to come over to play.) We miss the truth when we look through the dirty windows of our past.

God forgives and forgets our past mistakes and failures. We need to do the same. When I say forget I do not mean act like they never happened at all. Hold onto lessons learned from them but let go of the hurt and shame. If God can forgive us we need to forgive others we need to do the same. When we forgive others we are letting go of the hurt but not necessarily the lesson learned by the actions that cause the hurt. You can forgive but not fully trust someone. Trust needs to be rebuild. Use wisdom, not everybody you forgive needs to be treated as if nothing ever happened.

Remember this, God has plans for YOU and they are plans to bless you now, next year and beyond.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Sometimes those plans take us through a dark patch in life but God’s plans are always for our good. Just like Lewis had to be separated from his mother to find the family that was just right for him. Remember God is for you not against you.

Also remember the sun shines and the rain falls on the good as well as the evil person. In other words things just happen! Not everything is God playing chess with your life and moving you like a piece. Some things are natural consequences to your actions and others are just “life” happening. Either way God is still there to see you through.

I pray 2013 was a good year for you. If not I pray you see God was there for you and with you through it. I pray that 2014 is a better year for you than 2013 no matter how 2013 was.

May the God of peace be with you in 2014 and beyond.