Valeria Cotto and Brooklynn Prince from The Florida project, screen shot from the trailer
As I watched The Florida Project, I thought about what Jesus told His disciples in Luke 6:20-21:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” he said. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”
Powerful words, those. And oddly, Jesus didn’t put any asterisks on them: No “Blessed are you that are poor, unless it’s your own fault.” No “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied … until you get your act together and can satisfy yourselves.” I’m all for self-reliance and self-improvement. But in this moment, Jesus’ blessing seems wholly unconditional.
Early in the movie, we see a van full of bread—an outreach, apparently, of a local church or ministry— serve Halley and Moonee’s hotel. Moonee walks up to the back of the van and claims a variety of loaves like an experienced shopper, taking the generosity for granted. And yet the van keeps coming back.
We see Bobby, the hotel superintendent, behave something like a shepherd, doing what he can to keep his hotel flock safe. Sometimes his work goes completely unnoticed. Sometimes he’s cursed and belittled by the very people he helps. But he keeps helping.
Love is hard. Generosity is hard. We want to be rewarded for our good works, have our faithful stewardship acknowledged.
But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, it seems like all our love and generosity simply vanishes down a dark hole.
But does that mean we should stop loving? Stop giving? Take our ball and go home? If God cut off His blessings to us whenever we failed to show proper gratitude, how much of us would have anything?
We rarely see the inside of Disney World in The Florida Project. The Magic Kingdom might as well be Timbuktu. But sometimes, in the broken, fallen, pink-purple hotel, an echo of the Kingdom of Heaven seems surprisingly close.
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