I hesitate to write this, but there is a movie you must see. I hesitate because I know that when someone touts a movie too highly, I end up disappointed when I finally watch it. I’m also less likely to watch it, simply because this other person likes it so much. There’s often an urgency to their recommendation, like if I don’t see it immediately, I might as well not see it at all. My inner contrarian rears his head, and it becomes the last movie I will watch.
So, let me try this again.
There is a movie I think you might perhaps maybe you-never-know kind of like a little bit. Watch it if you like sometime when you’re perusing your Netflix queue because you have finished watching every episode of Coach.
The movie is As It Is In Heaven, a Swedish film from 2004 about a world famous conductor who returns to his small hometown following a breakdown. Soon, he begins directing the local church choir, and nothing in his life or the lives of the people in the town will ever be the same again.
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To sum up this movie or the effect it had on me in the next 189 words in an exercise in futility. As It Is In Heaven so well encapsulated what I hope and believe Church truly is, I ached as I watched it. I didn’t want to watch any other movies for a few days afterward. As It Is In Heaven is aptly titled, because it is a window into heaven, in my opinion.
I’d like to write a little about worship as depicted in this wonderful film.
They say that worship is the only thing we do on earth that we will also do in heaven. When they’re talking about singing as worship, I don’t really agree, but if they’re talking about the kind of things this choir does, I’m on board with that statement.
The choir in this film loves each other in so many ways. They forgive. They protect. They comfort. They encourage. They work justice. They lead and lift up. They surrender and serve. Why do they do this? Because they believe in something holy and good beyond themselves. Their love is a response to being loved.
That’s worship… As It Is In Heaven.
