Why Buzz and Woody’s Story is Our Story

On the first day of school this year, my son came home saying a boy on the bus told him there were two things he needed to do to be cool: 1) own a pair of Vans (a brand of shoes that were, mind you, brag-worthy in my day and have made a recent comeback) and 2) play a certain well-known video game. That’s it. That was this kid’s recipe for cool. Only problem was, my son didn’t currently own a set of Vans. On the other hand, he had been enjoying battling on said video game for quite a while now.

Photo by Ben Weber on Unsplash @benearlweber

He was one for two. But at the end of the day, what did it really matter? Do those two things say anything about who my son, Jayden, is?

What about you? What do you think it takes to “be cool?” More importantly, what makes you you?

As boys and girls, we want to be known, accepted and loved. We want others to think highly of us. It’s natural for us to feel this way. I told my son that I, too, could remember a day when it was all about the shoes: it was art class in 5^th grade. My family didn’t have enough money to buy all the newest fashions, but since my older sister and I were about the same size, we could often convince my mom to buy us the latest trend if we shared it between the two of us. I was very pumped about wearing my new colorful sneakers to school, but my friend soon began to notice that I wore them ALL. THE. TIME. Don’t you have any other shoes? You wear those every day! (of course I did! And I was wearing them right out of style!) Apparently, she didn’t think they were quite as awe-inducing as I did, and I was getting made fun of over a silly pair of shoes.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash @nate_dumlao

While my son and I’s conversation about self-worth began with shoes, Woody and Buzz’s ends on it. One of the common themes within the Toy Story  movies is that Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toy gang are wrestling with a couple of important questions: In the imaginary world of their little toy souls, they were asking the big ones Who am I?  and Who’s with me?  Essentially, they were trying to figure out their identity. Identity:  that’s a significant word. What does it mean? Identity is the way you define who you are.

Woody, throughout all four Toy Story movies goes on a journey of rooting his identity—his knowing who he was and his place in the world—on one thing: the name that was imprinted onto the bottom of his shoe: ANDY. He was Andy’s and Andy was his. But when Woody was placed in new circumstances—when someone new joined the party, or Andy’s proximity changed—Woody had a hard time not questioning whether the love of the one whose name was written on the bottom of his shoe was truly unconditional. Could it last forever?

When Woody looked to the right and to the left at his surroundings, or listened too closely to the negative talk of those around him, he began to fear. He wasn’t the only one. Buzz also struggled with being secure in who he was. While Woody was busy worrying about circumstances to define where he stood in life, Buzz’s identity was wrapped up in what he could do. He was star commander. He had lots of cool buttons. And he could fly. For a long time, Buzz was very confident in who he was and what he could do, but when he finds out he’s not actually a space ranger, the thing he once took so much pride in leaves him devastated. He opens the flap on his command center arm and sees that he was made in Taiwan. He’s a toy. He’s about to give up hope of having any real purpose in life. But when he turns his shoe over and sees the name Andy printed on the bottom of it by his beloved boy himself, he remembers that his identity isn’t secured so much by who he is but by whose he is. Andy knows exactly who Buzz is and loves him exactly the way he is. Woody, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vddEvqS6M4o

God is our Father, Jesus is our friend, and guess what? He’s written His name, not on a shoe, but on our hearts! When you believe that Jesus died on the cross and as such, forgives your sins, the Creator of the universe calls you a child of God. (Galatians 3:26) And that’s not enough; He wants to be with you. “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you,” He tells us in John 14:20.

And as far as that changing anytime soon? The Bible tells us that “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) Not what anyone else says is cool—whether you have it or you don’t. “You are a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone (or on shoes!)  but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3, parenthesis added)

He’s written His name, not on a shoe, but on our hearts!”

You can base your identity on a lot of things: how good you are at playing basketball, how many friends you have, what your family is like. But the Bible teaches us to define our identity this way: if we believe God, we are His children. When we find ourselves looking to define our importance or worth in anything but the way God taught us to, we will come up short. Buzz and Woody go on many adventures, and their greatest desire—that Andy’s love would remain steadfast for them—is at the heart of all of them. They want to know that Andy’s love will stick with them always, through thick and thin.

We know one whose love is greater than any human’s. God’s love is unchanging and never-ending. We can be sure of our identity as His children.

For more resources on teaching your children throughout the week of God’s great love for us, consider reading John 10:27-30, Romans 8:35-39, Galatians 4:6, and Hebrews 13:5. Plus, SUBSCRIBE to the blog to receive more eye-opening, gospel-lending messages in the movies you and your kids watch.

POSTED BY

Jenna

Jenna Kruse is a teacher but not in a classroom. She loves to think outside the box and inside the Word and is daily in need of an attitude adjustment. She is a wife to Justin, a mother to three children ages 10, 8 and 5 and a mentor to teenagers and young adults. You can learn more about the heart behind her blog HERE.

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