After I saw the post about this movie on Fred Blauer's website, I knew I had to see it. It immediately became my favorite movie. I'm watching it for the 7th time as I type this. If you haven't seen it yet, you might not want to read this post until after you've seen it. My 18-month-old son loves this movie, too. It's the only movie he'll actually sit and watch, and every time a musical scene happens, he dances with a big smile on his face.

God speaks to me through this movie in multiple ways and on multiple levels.

The part I value about it the most is the way August's face lights up with joy when he plays music. First on the guitar, then on the organ, then as a composer and conductor. He found what God created him to do, he did it, and in doing it his heart was filled with joy and pleasure, and, of course, so was God's! All of us were created to love to do certain things, and there is great joy for us, for God, and for other people in the fulfillment of those purposes.

Here are some other concepts the movie illustrates to me:

The pursuit of God-given dreams produces God-empowered joy, strength, focus, energy, motivation and drive. The enemy will use everything in his arsenal to thwart those dreams. In the movie, he uses deception over and over again. Lyla's dad lies to her about the baby. Wizard knows people are looking for August, but he tears down the signs without telling anyone that he knows where August is. Lyla's neighbor tells Louis that one of the musicians is away on her honeymoon, and Louis believes it to be Lyla. And yet, through it all, God turns the tables on the enemy and His glory shines brighter because of the victory in spite of the obstacles.

The story is a perfect example of how God moves through people's desires. Desire is the motivating factor of human beings. (John Bevere said that, and I totally believe it.) If we want to do something badly enough, we do it. August left the children's home because of an overwhelming desire to find his parents and a faith that he would be able to find them using the gifts they passed on to him.

It also illustrates how perfect God's timing is. Near the beginning of the movie, August loses the number for the state worker who had promised to help him. Then he gets lost and can't get back to the place where the worker was going to pick him up. We see those things as unfortunate, but God uses them for good. Whether by their own design or by God's, everyone in the film ends up being in exactly the perfect place at exactly the perfect time for everything to happen just as it needs to.

Adversity, trials, challenges, pain, failures, mistakes, tragedy and heartache will always give birth to something great in the life of a believer, because God has promised that all things (ALL things) work together for the good of those who love Him.

I love how absolutely everything begins and ends with God. He births dreams, visions, plans, goals, desires, talents and love in the hearts of His people, and when His people move in response to what He's placed inside them, it goes back to Him in an endless, life-giving circle and cycle of renewal that reveals His glory and reflects it back to Him. How awesome is that??

The only criticism I've heard of this movie is that the ending wasn't long enough. People wanted to see August and the parents united. They wanted to see father and son come to a full understanding of their relationship. I've been pondering that, and I actually agree with the movie-makers' decision to end the movie the way they did. It was a complicated situation that could have let to a thousand different outcomes. The way the movie ended allows people to imagine the continuation of the story in the way that means the most to them.

I love this movie. I'll always love it. And when I'm hungry for more of God, for God's presence and God's voice, I will watch this movie again.