Note: Spoilers below.

A good way to end my vacation was a Disney animation.  On  June 30, 2018, my sister Liza and I saw “Incredibles 2.”  I have enjoyed the first “Incredibles” movie with multiple themes of hero worship/demolition, suppressed/expressed talents, etc.  This sequel was enjoyable and funny.  But I needed a few days to tease out the bigger themes.

Don’t do it by yourself.

Mr. Incredible learned this tough lesson as he tried to be Mr. Mom while Elastigirl steps into the limelight to make superheroes legal again.  But his solutions and his initial refusal for help didn’t solve the problems.  An attempt to hide Violet’s superpowers ended up wiping out the memory of Violet in her crush.  Keeping up with Jack-Jack’s emerging superpowers deprived Mr. Incredible of sleep.  He did make one mighty effort to help Dash with his math problems.  But the crush of other problems hindered that success.

When Mr. Incredible faced his own powerlessness, he was able to reach out for help.  Edna, Lucius, Violet and Dash started to provide key assistance.  Sometimes in our lives, we are so set to fix the problems that we must hit bottom to realize our helplessness.  But God wants to help us and raise us up IF we allow Him help us.  We need to have humility to tap into that divine help.

This individualism expands to the rest of the Incredibles in the next theme.

Save the world together as a family.

At the start of the movie, the Incredibles attempted to stop the Underminer.  But the family was disorganized.  Violet and Dash were to stay behind and watch the baby as the parents confronted the bad guy.  But the kids wanted to help and not to be the baby sitter.  That jockeying not to be the baby sitter hampered the fight.  In the process, Underminer escaped with the money and the Incredibles were left with a pile of destruction.

But the movie’s final battle had the family work as a cohesive unit as each tackled the necessary assignment to capture the bad guy and save lives.  What changed?    The kids learned that to know where they are most needed.  Violet opted to stay with the baby because her shields could protect Jack-Jack if things failed.  Dash waited for the signal to retrieve Mr. Incredible instead of impulsively push the button.  Elastigirl trusted that the family could handle saving the runaway ship while she chased down the villain.  Mr. Incredible tapped his brute strength to steer the ship out of danger.

A life is worth saving.

The villain told Elastigirl that saving her life does not make it right.  Elastigirl replied, “But a life is saved.”   Elastigirl captured the point well.  Each life has dignity because God bestowed that dignity from the beginning.  She exercised mercy in saving the villain from death.  Jesus gives people every opportunity to convert and receive healing and salvation.  Again, the choice is left up to us to accept that gift of mercy.