Finding Wilson

One of my favorite books of all time is the novel, Robinson Crusoe, the story of a man who is shipwrecked on an island where he lives for 28 years until he is finally rescued. There's a whole lot more to the story ... if you haven't read it, you should. I think perhaps my love of the tale of Robinson Crusoe explains in part why I fell in love with a movie that came out several years ago titled Cast Away starring Tom Hanks. I remember the Christmas Day when the kids and I first saw the movie in a theater with our friends Greg and Nancy. I also remember the emotion that swept over me when I saw the film, and I still tear up every time I watch it. It's been on TV a lot over the last week or so, and since I've spent a great deal of time on my couch for the last few days, I've watched the movie several times. And each time I do, I am struck by Wilson ... you know, the volleyball that Tom Hanks paints a face on ... a face painted in Tom's own blood ... an accidental injury that led to the creation of Wilson ... the volleyball turned friend that helps to keep Tom going during his lonely days on the island.

You see, while some would say that the character portrayed by Mr. Hanks descended into a state of madness in the way he communicated with Wilson, I would argue that the personification of the volleyball in fact kept him alive, gave him hope and helped him to find a way to escape the island. I sobbed right along with Mr. Hanks as I watched the movie last night ... the scene when Wilson falls into the sea and floats too far away to be rescued, man, it gets me every single time. There are so many life lessons in that film ... I could probably pen a hundred posts and not scratch the surface of all the underlying meanings. But last night, one in particular kept pounding in my brain as I lay stretched out on my couch. People need relationships. And if a person finds himself on a deserted island with no human contact, that person will create someone to love, someone to care for, someone to communicate with. As I watched last night, I wondered what course the movie would have taken had Mr. Hanks not found Wilson, had he been forced to endure his time on the island completely and totally alone.

When I turned off the television and headed toward my room to get ready for bed, I heard myself conversing with Julie and Ollie in much the same manner that Tom Hanks had conversed with Wilson. I heard myself asking them questions and pausing as if I were listening for their answers. As I asked them if they wanted a piece of cheese before we turned in and they both went flying into the kitchen, a thought crashed into my mind much like the waves had crashed into the shore in the movie I had just watched. These two dogs are my Wilsons ... they are my Wilsons on this deserted island that is my current dwelling place. They are my constant companions, my listening ears, my loyal and faithful Wilsons. I remember when the trailers for Cast Away first appeared on television, I thought the filmmakers had misspelled the title. I thought it should have been a noun, the person on the island, a castaway. I didn't understand until I watched the movie that using two words rather than one carried with it a wealth of meaning and purpose.

Yes, Mr. Hanks was a castaway ... a man who survived a crash and was living alone on a deserted island. But he was also cast away ... torn away from his normal existence and thrown into a place he had never been before. And here's the thing ... when he left the island, he left a changed man, a different man, a better man than he was before that fateful night that seemed in every way to be the end of his world. You see, when he returned to the life he had known before, he understood how it felt to be alone ... he understood how it felt to be hungry and thirsty ... he understood how it felt to be sick and injured ... he understood the need for relationships ... he understood the meaning and the brevity of life in a whole new way. The island ... the deserted, harsh, lonely, isolated island ... changed him in ways he could never imagine possible while he was stranded.

So here's to enduring the island ... here's to finding Wilsons ... here's to seeking rescue ... for all who are castaways ... for all who are cast away. God is still God when the waters rage and the winds howl. God is still God when life comes crashing down around us. God is still God when the darkness is deep. God is still God on every island in every sea. God. Is. Still. God.