The new movie Soul Surfer, about competitive surfer Bethany Hamilton, has been getting a lot of press lately. The general reaction from critics has been respectful surprise, either that Hollywood would get the faith stuff right or that it seemed credible.
The part of the story that still touches me is the relationship between the father and his soul-surfing daughter.
OK, I have two sons, not daughters, but every parent knows that moment when your kids are outside of your care. You’ve done your best, you’ve given them “roots and wings,” you’ve filled them with parental advice, you’ve prayed them to sleep, but then you have to let them go and right as rain, they’re going to run into some trouble.
Dennis Quaid, the actor who plays Bethany’s dad, Tom Hamilton, in the film, has talked about being a Fix-It Dad. Ain’t we all? We figure any bind our kids get into, we can get ’em out. I remember a friend’s dad visiting her when she was sick and nearly destroying her old car in an attempt to repair it. By golly, he couldn’t fix her, so he was going to fix it. (A quick read of the owner’s manual would have saved him a world of trouble…but that’s another story.)
Usually in these kinds of films, it’s the mom who has the faith and the dad who mobilizes the forces, whether it’s doctors, lawyers or a good electrician. But here, Tom Hamilton, sitting by his 13-year-old daughter’s bedside after she’s been attacked by a shark, turns to Philippians, telling her she can do all things “through him who gives me strength.”
From the day my youngest at 4 broke his femur and had to be in traction for 26 days, I learned how powerless I was. Where was that nursery school teacher when that boy rammed into my son with a tricycle? Why can’t the doctors fix him right now? Like Tom Hamilton, I sat in the dim light by a hospital bed, thumbing through a pocket Bible, the ultimate fix-it manual. Our kids go through these trials and grow up somehow. We get a remedial course in prayer.
Thanks, Dennis Quaid. Thanks, Tom Hamilton. You got that part just right.
