Bring your tissues…believe it or not you’re probably going to need them for Storks. It was a surprisingly wonderful (and touching)…and yes, hilarious… tribute to the sanctity of life and family.
Brief Synopsis:
Storks used to deliver babies, but they traded in their human cargo for something much simpler. Now they deliver for the Cornermart online delivery store. Tulip is an orphan whose stork was unable to deliver her to her family (the homing beacon was damaged). She lives with the storks. Through a series of misfortunes a new babies is created and Tulip and a stork named Jr. end up on a hilarious adventure to deliver the baby to her home. In the process, she finds her own lost family and the storks reexamine the future of their business.
Here are 12 great lessons and things to talk about from Storks.
1. It’s OK to be honest about what hurts.
Tulip was the one baby not delivered to her home. The one orphan who was raised by the storks. So much pain in that. She wasn’t just an orphan, she was the only one. The storks called her “Orphan Tulip”. They all did, so Jr. didn’t know any better. When he was assigned by the boss to go talk to her, he said it, too. “Orphan Tulip.” Her response was ideal. “Tulip is just fine. Orphan hurts my heart.” In that one, simple response, free of any guile, she is both vulnerable and kind. She openly admits her heart can be heart and even what hurts it, but does so without bitterness or anger, and with a great assumption in the other person’s goodness. So often we get mad at someone for hurting us. Tulip doesn’t do this. She doesn’t assume that Jr. meant anything bad by it. In fact, she seems to assume he just doesn’t know better. Her response implies that if he knew it was hurtful he wouldn’t do it. Far from assuming the worst, she actually assumes the best in a beautiful way.
Note, however, that in assuming the best she doesn’t deny that it hurts. She is completely honest about what hurts but in the most gracious, bitter-free manner.
- How do you respond when people hurt you? Is it hard for you to be honest with people about what hurts you? Is it hard for you to assume the best when people hurt you?
2. Labels hurt.
When the storks called Tulip “Orphan Tulip”, they were labeling her. They didn’t simply see her as Tulip, they saw her as an orphan. She was an orphan, but having that title assigned to her name was a constant reminder. It affected how they saw her, and it also affected how she saw herself. It separated them from her. They didn’t have such labels for each other. Jr. was just “Jr.” Hunter was just “Hunter”. Understand, they didn’t call her “orphan” to hurt her. It was a fact. She was the one orphaned child there. It probably started out as a phrase of compassion, even. The poor, orphan Tulip. No matter how it started, however, it became hurtful to her. Many labels start out that way. They start innocuously and maybe even from a place of compassion. Sometimes they don’t bother anyone at first, but often things change and the person being labeled begins to want to be known as more than that. Tulip was an orphan, but she was more. She wasn’t just someone to be pitied. She had ideas. She was an inventor and a leader. She was spunky and kind. And she was loved. She was so much more. This is why labels often hurt—they aren’t big enough for us, even when they aren’t particularly negative, they are usually just too small, and that hurts on its own.
- What are some of the labels you feel people have put on you? Do they feel good or bad? Why? How are you more than the labels people put on you? Are there people in your life who have been labeled? How do you think they feel about those labels? Is there anything you can do about it?
3. Sometimes it’s hard to accept love
Throughout the movie, people try to resist the baby’s love. They warn each other, “Don’t look in her eyes.” They moment they do, they’re putty in the baby’s hands. Jr. tries to resist. He tries to deny it. He tries to be cool and pretend he isn’t totally in love with that baby, but at the end, when the baby snuggles up to him and he’s trying to act like he doesn’t care, Tulip just says, “You love it.” And he knows he’s busted and can’t lie… He does love it. We love being loved. We all do. The odd thing is how often we try to resist it, deny it and run from it. Love makes us vulnerable. It makes us do ridiculous things (baby talk, anyone?). Sometimes we just don’t want to be vulnerable or ridiculous so we try to close ourselves off from it. Other times, we don’t feel we are worthy of it. “How can that person love me?” we wonder. That, too, can make it hard for us to accept love.
- Have you ever found it hard to accept love? Why or why not? Do you know anyone who has a hard time accepting love? What can you do for that person?
4. It’s easy to forget our true purpose
Maybe our original calling is not glamorous and we want to pursue something more prestigious or cool or potentially prosperous. Maybe we find other dreams, good things even, but lose sight of what we started with in the process. Maybe our leaders take us in the wrong direction. Whatever the reason, the truth is it can be easy for us to lose our way and forget our purpose, our calling. This is what happened with the storks and it can happen to us.
This is the warning to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, even though they were doing a lot of great things, they had forgotten their first love. Jesus says we need to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto us” (Matthew 6:33, emphasis added). When we start seeking all these other things and forget to put God first, things fall apart. We need to be sure we don’t forget to keep Jesus first (and the things He has called us to do).
- What happened when the storks strayed from their purpose, and what happened when they returned to it? Why do you think they got distracted? Which was better for them (delivering stuff or delivering babies)? Have you ever gotten sidetracked from the things you should have been doing? How did that make you feel? Do you keep God first in your life? How do you strive to do that? What difference does it make when you do?
5. Sacrifice is fulfilling
Tulip put her hopes of finding her family on hold to help the baby find her family. In doing so, she didn’t lose her family, but instead she expanded it. She created a makeshift family with Jr. and the baby, and then she met her own. When we choose to love other people as we love ourselves, we are blessed.
- What good things came out of Tulip’s willingness to put the baby’s needs and happiness first? Have you ever sacrificed what you wanted for someone else’s good? What good came out of that for you?
6. Kids are exhausting, but worth it.
You kind of have to love the comical dose of reality in this movie as Tulip and Jr. parent the baby. They are exhausted keeping up with the baby’s feeding schedule and sleep patterns. But they also LOVE that baby and the moment she smiles, all is worth it. Love is always worth it.
7. Hope is transformative…and even creative
Nate’s hope for a baby changed his parents, his relationship with his parents, and his own situation. His hope for a sibling brought one into being. Hope may not create the miracle, but it sure gives room for God to work one.
- How did hope change Nate and his family and their relationships with each other and the people around them? What have you ever hoped for? How did your hope impact your life and the lives of people around you? Did you know that in Romans 5:5 we are told that hope does not disappoint? What do you think that means?!
8. Dreams of the future help free us from our past
Tulip had a choice, she could focus on her past, on being an orphan and never knowing her family, or she could focus on the future. She chose the latter. She had big ideas about what she would do with the Cornerstore if she were in charge. She had dreams and those dreams allowed her to keep creating and experimenting and moving forward in her life.
- Do you live in the past or in the future? Are you stuck on things that hurt or disappointed you in the past or are you focused on the future and hope and the promises that God has for you? Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has plans for your future, to prosper and not to harm you, to give you hope. Have you ever asked God what His plans are for your future? How would having a vision for your future change the way you live?
9. Blessings given to others multiply hope
Tulip didn’t see the baby’s happiness as a threat to her own, rather as a promise. “If this baby finds her family, then maybe I can find mine.” She was invested in the baby’s future because she viewed it as a testimony, a beacon of hope for her own future happiness.
- When other people get something good, maybe even something you have been hoping for, do you rejoice for them or are you jealous? Why? How can you learn to see other people’s good gifts as a sign of hope that maybe good things are coming for you as well?
10. Life is better when we make time for each other
Nate’s parents discovered that life was far more wonderful once they put their phones aside and engaged with their son and each other. They let go of the expectations of society around them, for their jobs and even for their home. Instead, they invested in Nate’s dream and in each other. In doing so, they all came alive. They all discovered fun and laughter and love they had long been missing out on. Understand, however, that at first it was costly. Like any worthwhile purchase, they had to pay for it. They paid with work. They paid with time and attention. They even paid with their relationship with the neighbors who didn’t understand their choices, didn’t like the changes to their house, etc. It cost them, and it was a cost they weren’t sure they wanted to pay at first. They were reluctant. But in the end they realized the benefits were worth far more than they paid for them and they never went back.
- How can we make time for the people in our lives? What does that really look like? Are there people in your life that you wish would make time for you? Do you know that God ALWAYS has time for you???!!!
11. Love wins and babies have super powers
When the wolves were about to attack Tulip, Jr., and the baby, all the baby had to do was laugh and the wolves melted. Suddenly they were in love with the baby. The Bible says we overcome evil with good. The baby had a crazy kind of super power, as all babies do. Babies can get anyone to do anything for them. Yes, sometimes it’s just to stop the crying or to keep the baby asleep (the movie is full of those funny moments…epic fights being done silently because NO one, good or bad, wants to wake the baby, for example…funny and oh-so-true!). But it’s also more than that. Babies have a purity and innocence and a willingness to love that melts even the hardest heart. They have no hate. They never return evil for evil. They have an innate super power of goodness that can overcome evil. Maybe not always—we never see the evil (more evil-ish, really) Cornerstore boss, Hunter, soften—but often. We can learn from that. Jesus even encourages us time and again to be like babies, to be childlike. Storks may help us see the benefit of that advice.
- Why do you think the baby had such power? How can you work to overcome evil with good in your own life? What do you think Jesus means when He says we should be like children?
12. We ALL long to be part of a family, biological or not
I’m not a huge fan of the whole, “families come in all shapes and sizes” cliché. Not because it isn’t true but because it can be an excuse for legal sanctioning for all sorts of out of the box things. That aside, however, it is still true. What is also true is that all of us long for a family. And most of us long for a “normal” aka nuclear family with a mom and dad and kids and a dog. We long for it but for so many reasons (often beyond our control) many of us don’t have that. The tendency at that point is to bemoan our misfortune. You have to love plucky little Tulip for this—while being fully honest with her longing for her biological family, she doesn’t wallow there. She simply makes a family out of whoever is near/available. She creates her own family. This serves her own interests, sure, but it also is a blessing to those around her more than she even realizes. She creates a family out of the band of misfits, and later, she creates a family with Jr. and the baby. So much so that Jr. gets sorely offended by her mentioning a desire to find her “real” family. It implied that their makeshift family was in some way less, or false or fake… It was real to Jr. and it was all he had. Of course they made up in the end and when she found her biological family, he wasn’t left behind. Families do this. They don’t focus on blood ties, that’s just a starting point. They include all who long to belong. There is always room for more where there is love. Love doesn’t run out; it multiplies.
This is what it’s like in God’s family. It starts with blood. Jesus is the Father’s Son, but ALL are welcome and even WANTED to join to the family. All who have no family are invited to be part of theirs. And if you should find that God’s family is really the family you’ve been looking for all your life, you don’t have to leave your makeshift family behind…you bring them into the fold with you. They are welcome. There’s room and love enough for all. Tulip made it know she wanted a family. We never hear Jr. mention any such desire. He didn’t know he wanted a family till he had one. But make no mistake, whether you are more like Tulip or Jr., EVERYone longs to belong to a family. God made us that way so that we would want to be part of His.
- Who would you say is your family (and I’m not just talking about biological families, but the family of love that God has given you)? Are there people that you know who need to feel like they belong to a family? What can you do about that? Do you know that God has invited you to belong to HIS family? What do you think it would be like to belong to God’s family??? Have you ever thought about inviting your friends to join the family of God?