Matilda

This morning, when Levi first woke up, he asked me if he could watch a movie called Matilda. I didn't have to give it much thought. After he finished his Saturday morning chores, Levi found the movie on the free cable Pay-Per-View channel, and I let him watch the movie he had requested. Then, I sat in the family room and watched part of Matilda with him.


Perhaps you remember the movie, which first came out in 1996, or even the book it is based on, a 1988 classic by one of my favorite children's authors, Roald Dahl. He also wrote eighteen other children's novels, like James and the Giant Peach, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Like many of his works, Matilda is a rather quirky tale about a child who is magically able to overcome a desperate situation, emerging in triumph at the end of the story.

Today, National Adoption Day, was a perfect day to watch Matilda with Levi.

Our youngest daughter, Victoria, was almost five when she joined our family through adoption. Her foster mother made sure to send Victoria's favorite videotape with her. She had given up naps, so for several months, after I read her a couple of stories, Victoria watched Matilda during her quiet time every afternoon.

It wasn't long before our whole family knew the story of Matilda very well.

As a young child, Matilda was stuck in an unloving, dysfunctional family, and in a school headed by Miss Trunchbowl, the worst imaginable, totally terrifying, principal. The story shows how Matilda, who was intelligent beyond her years, was able to fend for herself at home, cooking her own meals and learning everything she needed to know from books she checked out from the public library. At school, Matilda found hope in Miss Honey, a kind and loving teacher who recognized her worth. Eventually, when she was faced with some unthinkable trials, Matilda defended herself, Miss Honey, and her classmates by using her mind to levitate and move objects and people through the air. At the end of the story, Miss Honey adopted Matilda, and they both lived happily ever after.

Victoria, Age 4
Age 18
  
Victoria was a child who had endured much trauma before she entered a loving foster home and, finally, was adopted by our family. It was easy to see why Matilda was her favorite movie; it was a story that offered her hope and a sense of power in her own similar, powerless situation. And, like Matilda, Victoria longed to live happily after. 

There are times when each of us, I suspect, wish for magic powers that would enable us to fearlessly overcome our toughest trials. Sometimes, we are able to use the skills God has given us to make a difference. At other times, we have to rely on God's wisdom and power to help us through our most distressing ordeals. God doesn't promise to fix all of our problems, but he does promise to stay with us always. It can be difficult to understand that our own "happily ever after" will not truly happen while we live on this earth, but when we trust in Jesus, we can be sure that we will be eternally happy when we get to be with the one who loves us most, in heaven.


(Jesus said,) "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NLT


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