Shazam’s Adoption Message

I admit it. I have a soft spot for movies with an adoption message. Ever since we began pursuing adoption for our family, I have enjoyed stories about adoptive families. Lots of superhero movies have a focus on unique families, and many heroes have a tragic background. Perhaps a parent was murdered, and that tragedy helped motivate the hero to become a hero. While it is not surprising to find this kind of backstory with superheroes, I was pleasantly surprised by the way Shazam used the subject.

Abandoned and Searching

The main character, Billy Batson, has been desperately searching for his birth mom. As a child, he was abandoned by his mom at a carnival. Billy has bounced around to several families but keeps rejecting them because of his search for his birth mom. He doesn’t want to grow attached to another family– perhaps if he finds her, his life will get better.

In the early part of the story, he is taken in by a diverse family that has five adopted children. Freddy, the closest in age to Billy, quickly becomes his friend. Freddy and Billy develop their relationship as Billy is transformed into a Superhero and experiments with his powers.

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For me, some of the best parts of the movie relate to the adoptive family and the birth family. Billy still tries to pull away, but the family welcomes him and shows him love. Billy’s new siblings help him find his birth mom. He is hopeful for a great reunion, but that doesn’t happen. His birth mom doesn’t want to be a part of his life. This is when Billy realizes the importance of his new family. His new mom, dad, brothers, and sisters love him and he wants to be part of that. The supervillain threatens his family and he rushes off to save his “real family.”

Real Family

The fact that Billy called this new family his “real family” was awesome for me. My family is very different. We only have one daughter and not several adopted children. We have a great relationship with our daughter’s birth mom. Our family is not like the one in the movie but I know many adoptive families that have heard comments about them not being a “real family” or perhaps people ask about the child’s “real mom” or “real dad.” This is incredibly painful for adoptive families because we are the “real family” and the “real parents.” It was nice to see a big Hollywood movie use the term that way.

Later in the movie, the brothers and sisters are helping Billy against the supervillain. Billy thinks that he can give them superpowers and he encourages them all to grab hold of a staff and say “Shazam.” They do and they all are transformed into adults with superpowers. The brothers and sisters work together to defeat the supervillain. This was an awesome moment for me because the movie became about the love of family as a source of strength. This new family that loved each other were able to save the day.

God’s Family

There are many Bible passages that talk about people being adopted into God’s family. When God works faith in our hearts, He adopts us as his children. He washes us clean through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us.

For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

Ephesians 1:4-6

The Power of Our Family

As part of God’s “real family” we have been blessed with faith. We have been blessed with forgiveness and a home in heaven. The love of Christ is at work in our hearts and it unites us to all other believers. This love makes us powerful. We have a powerful message of eternal life to share with this world. We have strength when the difficulties of life try to tear us down. We are blessed through Christ and we have great power as part of his family.