Animated

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: ‘Animated’ as in… Mickey, Pinocchio, Woody, and a girl name Lisa all have one thing in common: they are all animated.

Mickey came to life on November 18, 1928 and was introduced to the world as “Steamboat Willie” and never escaped puberty. To this very day his voice is still as high-pitched as it was when he was a kid.

Pinocchio was born on February 23, 1940. Pinocchio’s dad was a woodcarver named Geppetto and they lived together in a modest cottage in Tuscany.

Woody was born in Emeryville, California in 1995 to the Pixar Family and had a thing for Western themes. He asked everyone to call him “Sheriff Woody Pride” which everyone shortened to “Woody.”

Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo is best remembered by the name given to her famous portrait created by an artist named Leonardo from a little Italian village of Vinci. “Mona Lisa” comes from the Italian word  mona, a contraction of the phrase ma donna, or “my lady.”

What’s fascinating about Mickey, Woody, Pinocchio, and Lisa Gherardini, is that they’re all animated to some degree; brought to life by someone else. Mickey was animated by Ub Iwerks and guy named Walt who loved theme parks. Woody was animated by a Bud Luckey. Pinocchio was animated by Carlo Lorenzini Collodi, a children’s book author. Sometime in early 1542, Lisa Gherardini’s husband hired Leonardo to paint her portrait. Lisa Gherardini’s smile is what brought her to life. And it’s her smile continues to animate that timeless painting.

This raises some questions: Who brings you to life? We know that artists brought these characters to life; gave them shape, form, and function. Joy, wonder, beauty, grace, and even some mystery in a smile have given countless others a sense of the profound power of animation. Life coming to life – that’s what the Spirit does in us: brings life to our lives.

To the extent that we know that the Spirit brings us shape, form and function is the extent to which we’ll continue to bring joy, wonder, beauty, grace as well as some mystery to others.

That should make us smile.

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50works project, where be blogs about a different word each day. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche), or on his blog, Thriving Rhythms.