At Easter, film delivers Christian redemption message
OJessica Johnson
ne of my favorite verses from Bart Millard’s hit “I Can Only Imagine” by his band MercyMe is when he sings about being surrounded by the glory of Jesus and in the awe of that moment, “standing in the Son.”
Millard beautifully penned what he envisioned as the grandeur of God’s presence in the everlasting sanctuary of heaven.
These lyrics have touched millions of lives since “I Can Only Imagine” was released in 2001.
The new movie that bears the same title gives us the story behind it, an emotionally gripping testimony of how Millard overcame an abusive childhood.
For Christian artists like Millard who have endured pain and great suffering, the words of Isaiah 61:3 are evident in the music they write.
They have put on “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” and received the “oil of joy for mourning.”
The film begins with the spirit of heaviness that Millard carried at the young age of 13 due to the bitterness of his father, Arthur, whom Dennis Quaid portrays with a violent sullenness. A broken man whose dreams have been shattered, Arthur tries to crush Millard’s creativity and curiosity with brutal beatings.
He is far from the type of parent who tries to live vicariously through his child when life has disappointing turns. “Dreams don’t pay the bills,” Arthur bluntly tells Millard at one point in the film, “It keeps you from all this, from knowing what’s real.”
Reality and adversity have worn Arthur down throughout the years as he wallows in his failure of not reaching his goal to play professional football. His wife eventually leaves him, and when he sees that Millard has a unique musical gift, Arthur spitefully tries to sow seeds of doubt, insecurity and misery in his son.
Yet, when you have a calling from God, as I’ve heard many preachers say in countless sermons, your destiny cannot be destroyed. God’s plans and his expected end, as stated in Jeremiah 29:11, place you on a distinct path, and he gives you grace to endure the obstacles along the way.
For Millard, that plan resulted in him writing the No. 1 selling Christian song of all time. And the glorious beauty behind it was that Millard wrote “I Can Only Imagine” after forgiving his father, who later died from pancreatic cancer.
Learning about the reconciliation between Millard and his father has genuinely touched moviegoers who have seen the film. For me, two additional spiritual themes boldly stand out: having the courage to confront your past and the faith to believe in God’s transforming power.
In the film, when MercyMe begins to do Christian songs as they travel from one gig to another, the band’s manager points out to Millard that something is missing from his performance. The manager asks him, “What are you running from?” and Millard honestly answers that he’s running from his father, and the manager challenges him to write about it.
The crowds who are coming to hear MercyMe are worshipping God through the band’s music, but Millard has not been delivered from the stronghold of his father’s abuse. It still haunts him. When he finally goes home, he is surprised, and in fact very angry, that his father has given his life to Christ.
Arthur asks a piercing question that cuts through his son’s resentment: “If God can forgive everybody else, why can’t he forgive me?” Millard would later say in an interview with Christian singer Amy Grant that he initially struggled to believe that God could change his father, but he was amazed when it actually happened.
Arthur’s salvation is one of the most touching parts of Millard’s testimony, and the release of “I Can Only Imagine” during Passion Week reminds us why the redemptive work of Christ is so precious. Even a monster of a man like Arthur can be saved and forgiven for all of his atrocious deeds in life. Millard could not imagine this at first, but he witnessed a conversion that was truly miraculous.