Real relationship

It was an ugly line, coming from a man who pretended to be Truman’s best friend. The kids and I watched The Truman Show the other night, aghast to see Marlin assure Truman, cued through an earpiece by the producer of the show, that he was as close as a brother. “I’d never lie to you,” he lied to Truman.

Have you seen the movie? Truman grew up on a TV set, not realizing that everyone in his world (except him) was acting. He was the star of a fabulously popular TV show, but he had no idea. Instead, the artificial world as all he’d ever known. Seahaven was a pleasant town with blue skies, sunshine, friendly neighbors, and safety.

Christof was the designer of the show, the maker of Seahaven, creator of the world where Truman lived. He had great affection for Truman but he didn’t hesitate to conjure up a near-fatal windstorm trying to keep Truman from escaping. (The ratings were great for that episode.) He manipulated people in and out of Truman’s life for the sake of the story.

But the comfortable safe world that he created for Truman turned out not to be enough, for the young man walked away from all he had known in pursuit of freedom and reality.

The story makes me think about Adam in the Garden. Adam lived in a nice place too. There was plenty to eat, safety, comfort. But there were differences, too. Christof remained hidden away while he tinkered with Truman’s world. God walked in the cool of the evening with Adam and, moved by Adam’s need for companionship, formed Eve – flesh of his flesh, no actress sporting a glowing smile while collecting a paycheck.

Christof embodies much of others’ suspicions about God: a creator who is kind and benevolent as long as it suits him, distant and unknown while tweaking reality for his own purposes. Comfort trumps freedom, influence routs relationship in that worldview.

But while Christof surrounded Truman with a fake world – fake interaction, fake sand, fake smiles – God formed a world of fruitfulness and abundance and freedom for Adam.

Christof created Truman for ratings but God…well, he created Adam for relationship. The reality of sincere relationship was what Truman longed for. So do we all.

Our Creator longs for it, too. Not for what he gains, but for what he gives.

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

Romans 5:8