In the beloved animation, Finding Nemo, released by Pixar Animation Studios in 2003, a worried and over-protective father, Marlin, searches for his lost son. As the movie begins, Marlin and his wife, Coral, are anxiously awaiting the hatching of their family. However, a hungry Barracuda shatters their dreams.
When Marlin regains consciousness, Coral and all the eggs are gone but one. Marlin vows to not let anything happen to his only son, Nemo. Unfortunately, Nemo needs independence to find himself, adding tension between child and parent. On his first day of school, an amateur scuba diver who is happy to add a colorful clown fish to his collection captures Nemo. Nemo joins the other creatures in a saltwater tank in the office of his captor.
Much of the movie involves Marlin’s search for Nemo aided by Dory, an exotic blue tang who frequently suffers from short-term memory loss.
Unlike fish and other animals which race from egg to adulthood in days, week or months, humans required years of nurture, oversight and constant care before finally reaching adulthood. But in our companion book for this series, Leo Buscaglia writes, “The adult with a capacity for true maturity is one who has grown out of childhood without losing childhood’s best traits.”
So what are childhood’s best traits?
My favorite is curiosity. Few things escape a child’s attention. Admittedly, as an adult, curiosity doesn’t take away control without our permission. Children, on the other hand, have little control.
According to Matthew, Jesus said we need to be child-like. Here, Jesus isn’t talking so much about child-like curiosity. Rather, the focus is on child-like dependence and innocence. As children depend on their caregivers for life’s necessities, so we need to recognize we’re just as dependent. Perhaps childhood’s best trait is their child-like humility.
In this week’s chapter from our companion book, Buscaglia takes us through five seasons of maturation common to all humans. Within each season, we either satisfy our search for self-actualization or miss out on great treasure.
I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3
Households everywhere witness the repetition of Nemo’s adolescent curiosity. Adolescence is a season of struggle as we realize our dependence restricts our need to search for who God created us to be. Their search usually puts teenagers on a collision course with adults. Particularly adults who are unsure of their own identity.
But when Nemo freed himself and reunited with his father, Marlin no longer saw him as an awkward adolescent. His son proved his abilities to take care of himself. Marlin matured. Just as important, Nemo returns to school with a new understanding of the world around him gained by curiosity.
Buscaglia describes the “fully functioning mature person” as an adult who sees life as “a series of choices, the selection of which they must determine, and for which they are singularly responsible.”
However, humans don’t flourish in isolation. We seek companionship.
Humans look to others for validation and continued growth. But it is important that intimate relationships combine strengths and energies with other mature persons to assure the continued growth towards the maturity of each partner.
This is because maturity is a process that never quite ends. A continuing journey that takes us from total dependence on others for choices, to independence, where we make choices. And life holds us accountable even when it may look like we’re getting away unaffected.
Sometimes life’s adventures take us to places where we’re held captive. But each moment offers new choices to claim freedom from allowing others to infect our joy. This axiom holds, even amid intimacy with another person.
And our journey towards maturity continues even after we reach that point where we realize that our days ahead are much fewer than our years. Often referred to as the circle of life, our physical presence draws to a close.
But life isn’t over. Jesus promised that our child-like curiosity never has to end. Jesus promised to return for us to spend eternity maturing in His presence.
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A reminder that we publish this newsletter that we call the Circuit Rider each week. You can request this publication by email. Send a request to FlintAsburyUMC@gmail.com or let us know when you send a message through our website. We post an archive of past editions on our website under the tab, Connect – choose Newsletters.
Pastor Tommy
Parts of our series was inspired by Leo Buscaglia. Personhood: The Art of Being Fully Human. NY: Random House,1986.
Finding Nemo. © Pixar Animation Studios, 2003