To Infinity…and Beyond!
Quick, the title of this week’s column is a quote from: A) the President, telling us how far into debt he plans to take us; B) the weatherman, telling us how high the temperature will go tomorrow, or C) a famous cartoon character?
If you guessed ‘C’, you are correct, and ready to play today’s game. We begin today with a test of your knowledge of famous movie lines. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine who said the following lines. Extra credit will be given if you can also name the movie from which the quote is taken.
Ready? Here we go:
1) “I’ll be back!”
2) “As you wish.”
3) “If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now!”
4) “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
5) "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
6) “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
7) “Tomorrow is another day.”
8) “You are a child’s plaything. A T-O-Y toy.”
9) “To infinity…and beyond!”
I know most of those were easy. But in case you missed one, here are the answers. 1) Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator”; 2) Wesley in “The Princess Bride”; 3) Clark W. Griswold in “Christmas Vacation”; 4) Rick Blaine in “Casablanca”; 5) Don Corleone in “The Godfather”; 6) The Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz”; 7) Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind”; 8) Sheriff Woody in “Toy Story”; and 9) Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2”.
I included those last two because, as you know if you have young children in your house, or eat breakfast cereal, or watch anything other than the Weather Channel on TV, “Toy Story 3” opened last weekend in theaters all across the country. I am keenly aware of this fact because I have children in my house, we eat a lot of cereal, and the Disney Channel is the only channel our Direct TV service seems to carry before 8:00 PM.
Because last weekend was booked solid for us, our first opportunity to see the new movie was Tuesday evening. Since my daughter had volleyball practice until 7:00 PM, I checked all the semi-local theatres for show times in the 8 o’clock hour so that we would have time for a quick bite of supper on the way. The only show to fit the criteria was an 8:35 offering at Tinseltown. That seemed perfect, so we picked up our volleyballer promptly at 7:12 and headed west. We stopped at the Chick-Fil-A off of Westport Road, wolfed down four chicken sandwiches and four orders of waffle fries, and headed over to the theater.
When we got close, I could see that “to infinity and beyond!” could have referred to the number of cars in the parking lot, and the number of people in line at the box office. I dropped my wife off at the curb so that she could get our tickets, and went in search of a place to park. After two passes through the parking lot, I realized there were none to be found, so I dropped the kids off to stand in line with their mother and headed over to the nearby shopping center to park there. By the time I walked back to the theater, my wife was at the front of the line, but I could tell things weren’t good. My son, Chase, greeted me with these words, “Go get the car, dad.” Much to our dismay, the show (at 8:35 on a Tuesday?) was sold out. The next show at Tinseltown wasn’t until 9:15, and as my wife told me this, I remembered that there was actually a 9:00 PM showing back in Shelbyville, so we loaded up and headed east. We arrived at the cinema at a few minutes before 9, walked up the ticket office, and found that the show I thought was at 9:00 was really at 9:35. By this time, everyone was so tired and frustrated that we just went home and went to bed. Needless to say, this was not the way we had envisioned the evening.
A few weeks ago, as I was tucking my 9-year-old son into bed, he asked me a question that brought to mind Buzz Lightyear’s famous boast that he will go ‘to infinity…and beyond.” My son asked me, “What is at the end of the universe? Does space ever stop, and if it does, what happens then? Is it like a box, or does it go on forever?”
Now, at this point I must admit I was tempted to play the ‘why don’t you ask your mom about that tomorrow?’ card, but instead decided to talk with him for a few minutes.
It is an interesting question, isn’t it? What is ‘beyond infinity’? Numerically speaking, nothing can be beyond infinity, because infinity goes on forever. Infinity is one of those things that our brains cannot totally comprehend. Sure we can understand the concept, but because are minds are finite and trapped within the realm of time, we cannot fully wrap our brains around anything that is endless or timeless.
But even if we can’t understand it, we know that infinity, or to put it more theologically, eternity, exists. Even the renowned theologian, the artist formerly known as Prince, said, “Electric word life. It means forever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you there's something else…the afterworld.”
We should not be surprised that everyone from my son, to Prince, to philosophers and preachers focus on the concept of ‘forever’. In the Bible, Solomon informs us that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men.” Regardless of your stated religious beliefs, deep down you know this to be true. Deep down, you find in yourself longings you may not be able to explain and the knowledge of a greater reality that beckons you. As C.S. Lewis said in his excellent book, Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The truth is that God created each of us as eternal beings who will live forever…somewhere.
Hopefully, that somewhere isn’t in line at the movie theater. With any luck, as you are reading this, we will be watching the Friday matinee. In the meantime, my prayer is that you will come to know the One who can truly take you ‘to infinity…and beyond’.
Chuck Souder is on staff at Shelby Christian Church. If you have questions or comments for Chuck, he can be reached at