[easyazon-image-link asin="6304676956" alt="Free Willy 3 - The Rescue" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V4MSGP0JL._SL160_.jpg" align="left" width="110" height="160"]

A great film clip which can easily be linked to the crucifixion, forgiveness and also how God sees us as His children.

Scene 21 until the son and father hug each other.  (Approximately 5 minutes)

In brief this clip involves Max, a young boy, who has become good friends with a whale called ‘Willy’.  Max’s father however is an illegal whale hunter and intends to kill Willy.  Whilst on the boat and about to shoot Willy, the father falls into the water and comes face to face with Willy and tries to kill him with his knife.  The father comes to the surface for air at which point the net on the boat accidentally falls on to the father and pushes him under the water and he is unable to escape.  Willy sees the father is in danger and rescues him.  The father later realises he was wrong and the son forgives him.

Willy was willing to save the father, even though the father wanted to kill him.  In fact Willy risked his own life to save the father.  The link to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross is pretty obvious.  Jesus died on the cross to save us and to allow us to have eternal life with God.  He did this, even for the people who tried to kill him.  Indeed on the cross, Jesus says “forgive them father”.

The father says to his son, ‘what am I supposed to do now?  I’m a whaler, that’s what I am.?’  Max is quick to reply and says ‘not to me, you’re my dad’.  Max could see past the wrong that his father had done and saw him as what he was, ‘his dad’.  Despite the fact that we are not perfect and we all sin, God still sees us as what we are……his children, hating the sin but loving the sinner.

Max quickly forgives his dad, even though he was trying to kill his friend Willy.  If you watch the clip for an extra couple of minutes you will see some friends discussing the fact that they could not have forgiven and saved the father like Willy had done.  Another friend then states, “maybe Willy is smarter than we are?”.  How much wiser or ‘smarter’ than us is God!  He knows better than us and will forgive us when we have done wrong if we are truly sorry.