Bridge to Terabithia

Today, I went to watch this show with my dad at Golden village today expecting it to be another graphic based children story like Chronicles of Narnia. In some aspects, it was similar but largely different.

About the background of the movie:
The show was based on a story written by Katerine Paterson in 1977. Paterson won a Newbery award for the book and there were surprising moments of spiritual dialogue in the film. I looked up her wiki profile, and found that she’s born to missionary parents. And thinking back now, there are much to ponder about regarding the story.

Spoilers Alert:

It’s a story of two young teens, Jess and Leslie, who don’t fit in at school in small town USA. Leslie recently moved in beside Jess and they become friends who imagine an alternative reality called Terabithia in the forest behind their houses. Through the movie, there is a constant conflict between imagination and realism of life.

At one point in the movie, Leslie accompanies Jess and his family to church (she’s never been to church before). After church, the scene is Jess, Leslie, and Jess’ younger sister - Maybelle in the back of a pick-up truck driving home.

Here’s the conversation:

Leslie: I’m really glad I came, that whole Jesus thing, it’s really interesting, isn’t it?

Maybelle: It’s not interesting, it’s scary. It’s nailing holes through your hands because we’re all vile sinners. I made Jesus die.

Leslie: You really think that’s true?

Jess: It’s in the Bible, Leslie.

Leslie: You have to believe it and you hate it. I don’t have to believe it and I think it’s beautiful.

Maybelle: You gotta believe the Bible, Leslie.

Leslie: Why?

Maybelle: Because if you don’t believe in the Bible, God will damn you to hell when you die.

Leslie: Wow Maybelle, where did you hear that?

Maybelle: That’s right, huh Jess? God damns you to hell if you don’t believe in the Bible.

Jess: I think so.

Leslie: Well I don’t think so. I seriously do not think God goes around damning people to hell. He’s too busy running all this (arms wide open, stretched out to the sky).

What do you see in the picture above? Ugliness or Beauty?

Some times I wonder, why do we believe in Jesus? Is it because we fear what after-life has for us, that we will be 'damned' to hell if we do not believe in him?

Just recently, I was chatting to a friend over the phone. He had been a Christian for some time but he had a similar thinking as to Maybelle in the story. He felt that God was 'sadistic' and we had no choice but to believe in him or else we will go to hell. Its either God or Hell. No choice at all.

I remember the first time I came to service when I was in secondary 3. It happened that that day, the sermon was on Revelation. It was of the signs that the world was coming to an end. During that sermon, there was a conflict within me.

The same question kept on popping up in my mind.

Heaven or Hell?

Jesus or Satan?

Redemption or Death?

Not much choice there isn't it. But what if we see the story of Christ from another aspect just like Leslie in the story.

The bible suddenly becomes beautiful or what Christ did for you on the cross and that through his death we have received salvation. Isn't the idea and concept of him sacrificing himself to save you just beautiful. The open mind of Leslie had helped her to see beyond the physical brutality of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If we see the story from her view, doesn't it just make you want to come to Jesus.

Another key theme in the story is about imagination and realism of life.

Quoted from an interview with the writer Paterson:

There's a trend lately to provide books and films for Christian audiences that are "safe for the whole family." Perhaps your books have been challenged because they're not necessarily "safe" for children. What do you make of the idea that children's books should be "safe"?

Paterson: Well, don't give them the Bible, then, because it's certainly not a safe book. Safety and faith are different things. If you want everything to be safe, then you can probably just totally do without the imagination. If you're so afraid of your imagination that you stifle it, how are you going to know God? How can you imagine heaven?

Maybe in Singapore, this is a question that we all have to ask ourselves. Are we stifling the imagination of children when they are young?

We have been forced to go through an education which is extremely results-orientated with no room for creativity. We experience the realism of life before the beauty of life itself. We see the realism of the crucifixion before the beauty and significance of the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.


We are safe if we do not trust God for the miracles in our lives. We are safe if we do not take the step of faith. But if we go deep, we will be able to look far with an open mind, we dare to imagine of heaven on earth and that would lead us to dream big.

Think, for a moment, of our Lord’s wounds on the cross. They are beautiful. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head is beautiful because of why Jesus wore it: he wore it for love; he wore it so that we could be forgiven for the sins we commit in our thoughts. The holes in his hands are beautiful because they bring us forgiveness for the sins we commit with our hands; the holes in his feet are beautiful because they bring us forgiveness for the times we’ve walked willingly into temptation and failed to avoid the near occasion of sin; and the hole in his heart is beautiful because through it we can be forgiven for the many times we’ve put other things before God—for the times, in other words, when we’ve allowed something else or someone else to occupy the first place in our heart.

It’s incredibly beautiful when people like you and me make tough, personal sacrifices for others; but it’s infinitely beautiful when an eternal God sacrifices himself for his imperfect and sinful creatures—as Jesus Christ did for us.- Fr. Ray Suriani

In the movie, Leslie who had come from an unbelieving family saw this beauty beyond both Jess and Maybelle who came from a believing family because she was able to see the story with an open heart and an open mind.

My prayer for the day is that may God help us to do the same and that we will dare to imagine for the greater miracles in our lives. To be able to see the beauty of the life rather then the mundanity of life. To see the beauty of God shining through our lives.

And to conclude: This show is highly recommended. Do place this show in your must-watch shows for the month along with the other blockbusters like Spiderman 3 (highly recommended as well), Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Shrek 3.


“If the Lord bid me fly, I should trust Him for the wings.” John Wesley