Eternal Sunshine of God's Spotless Mind

Posted by Shades Mountain Student Ministries | Posted in , , | Posted on Sunday, November 08, 2009

"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned."

-Alexander Pope

Earlier this week i re-watched one of my favorite movies, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

(Spoiler Alert)

It is the most creative and beautiful film I  think I've ever seen. The gist of the movie (although it twists and turns in a dreamlike fashion) is about a couple, Joel and Clementine, who break up and decide to have the other erased from their memory, provided by a company called Lacuna. Clementine has Joel removed first and when Joel finds out about it decides to have her memory of him removed. Most of the film takes place in Joel's mind as one-by-one his memories are slowly deleted. But as he is reliving these memories one last time he realizes that even though these memories are painful, he doesn't want to lose them. He runs with Clementine through his memories and hides out in other memories in order to keep his memory of her alive. None the less, when he wakes from the procedure all his memories of her are gone.

This all leads up to the ending that makes the most interesting and beautiful statement of love.

Joel and Clementine (post procedure) just happen to run into each other and hit it off really well. As they come back home together after their first date they each find a tape in their mailbox containing their pre-procedure interview about why they want their memory removed of each other.

There is this moment when these two strangers are hearing all of their faults spilled out by each other telling why they broke up and why they can't be together.

It's obviously a very strange and embarrassing moment, but they come to the conclusion that though they might come to the same place in another few years, though they might hit the same wall, even though one will hold back the other and hurt each other...they still want to give it a shot.

This made me think about how God knew ahead of time how I would mistreat him. He knew how I would forsake him. He knew all that I would do, and yet he decided to love me anyway. Before the fall, he knew he would demonstrate his love for me in the that while I was  a sinner Christ would die for me.

I thank God for his spotless mind that knew my hurtful ways yet looks on me with eternal sunshine.



Comments (0)