I learned something about Jesus from a movie

The gal and I were watching movies, as per usual, last night before bed. The final movie of the evening was “The Encounter: Paradise Lost,” a flick in which I didn't have high hopes for, but was admittedly mildly interested.

In short, random people including a grieving couple, a drug dealer, a DEA agent, a drug addict, and a thug end up in a room together. Along with Jesus Christ —— the actual guy. Not in spirit, in idea, or in any other sense; no, he was there, in the flesh, trying to save the day.

Okay, let’s see how this goes, I think. Pretty ballsy to have the actual dude there, writers.

Well, I feel they did a pretty good Jesus, if I do say so myself, and the movie rather accidentally gave me insight into something I’d sort of wondered about for years: How can he be everywhere, with all of us, at once? I mean, I know he’s supposed to be in our hearts and listens to us individually, but even as a young child, I thought he must be either really fast or... well, I didn't know what.

But in one scene, Jesus is talking to the group and then breaks off into a second Jesus to talk to one of the people individually, completely unknown to the rest of the group. It was eerie and neat, and a bell went off in my head.

It was kind of a durr moment. Of course he can do that type of thing, I thought. He’s Jesus! I do believe I’ve been underestimating him my whole life by trying to understand the science behind how he does what he does. What I should have been doing was accepting that he’s there and focusing more on my behavior and relationship with him.

So I thought, okay, self, I can understand this much clearer, now, but how would I explain what’s in my head to someone else questioning how Jesus can be inside 7 billion hearts? Then it hit me: Computers!

See, God would be like the tower, the main PC. Attached to him are billions of USB outlets, one for every potential believer in this world. Because the end of each USB cord (Jesus) is attached both to us and the main computer, Jesus can only respond as the mainframe would since that’s where he gets his information and commands. It really is a simple input/output scenario.

So yes, indeed, we can have our own personal Jesus! I thought that was kind of exciting. Now, if only I could erase the King Midas image of Heaven that’s been rattling round in my head since I was like five.

Streets of gold. Pfft. Ruined me.

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