...Walter...

The other night I decided to have a date night with my roomie, Tiara (who still has yet to have her picture or our place on this blog, but no worries, they are coming soon!) and we went to see "Love Happens"... now Tiara is the best movie buddy ever because she likes to sneak food into the movie theaters too (her Louis V. carry on has become part of our movie going experience because it is big enough to hold our take out in) and because she also isn't overly into Romance movies like me right now, but sometimes can too, so its almost always perfect.... (I don't know if that last bit made sense, but to me it did)... Well I was pretty excited about the movie "Love Happens" because I knew it wasn't going to be your run of the mill boy meets girl, they fall in love, and its cute the entire movie kind of romance... I knew there would be more true to life drama and love in it... well it exceeded my expectations! The movie in my opinion was fantastic... a really good story about the struggles people go through in their lives and especially the mourning process...

Enter Walter.... Walter is a character from the movie... Now I'm not going to tell you a lot about the movie, but this touched me so I'm going to share.... I don't want to spoil anything... The main character in the movie, Burke, is a Grief Counselor who has his own self-help line of seminars and books... Walter happens to be a man that lost his 12 year old son in an accident at his construction site... Walter his a big manly man from Montana, and really is having a hard time letting his son's death go, and has let his grief ruin his life (he lost his job and his wife left him)... Walter used to be a contractor and could never go back to a construction site nor a hardware store without it affecting him so he just avoided it... In the movie, Burke convinces Walter not to leave the program and Walter stays.... he still struggles though and won't open up... well as a group, Burke gets the entire seminar group to go on a field trip, Walter included, and to Walter's surprise it is to the hardware store... At first Walter won't even get off the bus, but thanks to Burke's encouragement, he does and decides to face his fear and cope with his loss... It was amazing to see how this big man's heart was changed and how he was able to heal with the help of all of his peers... They walked around the hardware store and picked out all the tools necessary for him to become a contractor again... It was so touching to see these people who had suffered great losses also to help this man, and to see his face light up and know that he was loved and that he can go on and remember his son... To be honest I cried, as I'm sure the entire theater did, and it really spoke to me... I turned to Tiara and told her that, "Walter just needs the gospel! I need to find him and share it with him!" of course Walter is a fictional character and that I won't really share the gospel with him, but I did think to myself there are many people I know that have suffered losses, be it family, friends, or other things in their life, and need the gospel in their lives! It is the answer and the cure! The pure love of Christ has the power to heal and we posses it and need to share! Just like Walter's peers reached out to him, we need to reach out to those in our lives... I for one was touched by Walter's experience and had a change of heart towards those I come into contact with daily... I'm so grateful to know that I can be with my family for eternity... They are truly amazing!