The other night my fiancé and I watched the movie “Bird Box” after I’d seen a few of my Facebook friends mention it while scrolling down my wall. The movie had a really interesting concept and kept me intrigued the whole way through even though it wasn’t the type of movie that would usually hold my interest. Today, while driving to yoga, I pondered the spiritual messages within this movie. If you’ve read any of my work, you’ll note that I firmly believe that God speaks to us all the time, we just have to be tuned in and paying attention.
As I ponder this movie, I see that is symbolic of our journey through life. In order to make it to the promised land or a heaven of our own creation, we must go through life as they did in the movie. We must blindfold ourselves to the negative influences of this world that will try to attack us and destroy our lives. My fiancé always says that he has remained faithful solely because he refuses to put himself into situations where he may be tempted. In this movie, they literally blindfolded themselves throughout their whole journey to keep the negative spirits from entering them as they knew that once they entered, they would become suicidal and take their own lives.
Every day we are surrounded by negative forces, or dark forces of the unseen world as the Bible sometimes puts it. However, we have the power to put the proverbial blindfold on ourselves and refuse to let them take hold of us. We can actively choose to ward them off since we have the God-given freedom that allows us to choose whether we’ll entertain the demons or not. In this movie, Sandra Bullock and her family realize this and spend their time navigating outdoors among the demons with their blindfolds on. This reminds me of Matthew 18:9:
And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
As in every biblical set of trials, the challenges grow greater as they near their destination. We see the demon possessed people attempting to entice those that are determined to remain sane to entertain the demons by looking at “how beautiful they are” and even go so far as to physically assault and pry their eyes open. In the final scenes of the movie, we see Sandra Bullock rowing down the river blindfolded to the Promised Land with her children whom she also keeps blindfolded. When they get to the rapids and she must make a defining choice of which child will look to steer her through the rapids, she decides to go on literal blind faith allowing God to guide them down the rapids. Miraculously when the boat capsizes, they all survive and then enter the literal wilderness where the demons do their very best to trick them into looking by using the voice of loved ones in an attempt to deceive them. Our temptations are never honest about what they are showing up in our lives to do…. steal and destroy.
Finally, Sandra and her 2 children make it to the Promised Land, which in this case is a community for the blind. The blind remained unaffected by the demonic possession of the world because they could not see the demons. Here, we see Sandra finally name the 2 children of hers… one after her biological mother and the other after the love of her life who helped her to raise both children before he’d sacrificed himself to the demons for their safety. I find this facet of the story interesting because in a sense I feel we all wander around without our true identity in the kingdom of God until we reach our own proverbial Promised Land and find our own identities in Him.
Overall, the movie was pretty good with a message that will resonate deeply with spiritually inclined individuals. When we watch, what would be defined as “fictional,” we see the teachers of life depicting what we must do to overcome this world and find our own peace and joy (a.k.a Promised Land).
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.