Common Sense Reborn

The Sign Part 2

¹⁷Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures of the earth.” (Genesis 9:17)

Good morning Y’all! After the Flood, where God wiped out the evil of mankind in the Middle East, God gave Noah the promise that He would never punish the world through flooding again with a rainbow in the sky. Many times in our own lives, God gives us signs to help guide us in our ways. The season finale of the award-winning, animated show “Bluey”, is a heart-warming story of God using signs to show the Heeler family where they truly belong. Warning-this post contains spoilers for this great episode.

“Bluey” has become quite the cultural phenomenon. I love the show for the lessons I learn from Bandit, Bluey and Bingo‘s father, and the way he plays with his two daughters. So many episodes teach wonderful lessons about parenting, giving our children the attention they desperately deserve, and gifting the world with fun little, quotable words and phrases to help make parenting so much more meaningful and fun. It is crazy to think that we, as parents, can learn this from an animated show about blue-heelers that both children and adults seem to love the world over.

“The Sign” is the climax of Season 3, bringing to conclusion the relationship that began in Season 2, Episode 38, when Bandit and Chilli (Bluey and Bingo’s “mum”) double-book babysitters for the girls. Bandit had asked his older brother, Rad, to babysit, and Chilli had asked her childhood friend, Friskie, to help watch the two rambunctious pups. When Rad sees Friskie, it is love at first sight, and he agrees to stay in order to have a chance to court this beautiful female. “The Sign” centers around Rad and Friskie’s wedding, which is to happen in the Heeler’s backyard and features all of the shows main characters. In the background of the wedding storyline, is the bigger plotline of Bandit accepting a new position in his occupation that comes with a significant raise, but with the accommodation that the Heeler’s will have to move to a new city for the job. This major development is alluded to at the end of the previous episode “Ghostbasket” where the audience sees a “For Sale” sign in front of the Heeler’s home. Hence the name “The Sign”. Throughout the season finale, Bluey, Bingo, and their cousins are attempting to pull out the “For Sale” sign from the front lawn, believing this is all they have to do to keep the house from selling. However, the house has already garnered the attention of a Sheepdog couple, who’s shaggy fur blocks their eyes and Bluey believes they are blind and cannot see.

Bandit believes that he is making the right decision by taking the promotion, thinking the choice will give his family and his children “the best life possible”. Chilli is against the move because of all the memories she has in the home and the relationships her family has made in their current city, where she grew up and where her six and four-year-old daughters have also lived their entire lives. This episode really pulled at my heart strings. As a person who lived their entire life in one city in southwest Florida, I know personally, the power and strength that comes from growing up in the city you are born and raised. As a person who has also pushed through the fear of moving away from everything familiar and planting roots in a new city and making new friends, I also know the fun and reward of taking such an adventure. So, in this episode, I could relate to both Chilli and Bandit, and easily understood why Bluey was so desperate to prevent the move to a new city. There are many “signs” within this episode that point to the epic ending: Rad and Friskie get into a fight over moving themselves that leads Chilli and the girls on a fun car chase through the city, as they search for Friskie to save the wedding. At the look-out, where Chilli and Friskie have a beautiful conversation about forgiveness and having faith, the kids find a viewing telescope which takes coins to activate. Bluey had “luckily” found a quarter earlier when they were in Friskie’s favorite juice restaurant. The kids get the quarter stuck in the viewer, which they believe is “unlucky”, however, this proves to be the key to the Sheepdog family finding a home they want more when they end up at the look-out near the end of the episode. The Sheepdogs want to see the Heeler’s home from the highest point in the city, but do not have any coins on them because “who carries coins anymore”. Well, “lucky” for them, the coin is still stuck in the machine, and what had proved impossible for the kids to extract, the husband Sheepdog easily removes the coin and places it in the machine the correct way. After activating the viewer, the husband does not find the Heeler’s home, but sees a home with the pool and the couple is left with a dilemma of what to do next.

The audience sees the answer to this question when the Heeler family is about to pull away from their sold home. Bandit gets a call from his agent (the creators of this show do a marvelous job of revealing this to the audience). Bandit takes the call from his agent and is told that the Sheepdogs have rescinded their offer. While this call may have been a blow to some families, Bandit realizes this is the sign he needed to point his torn heart to the right conclusion. Bandit removes the “Sold” tape from the “For Sale” sign, and then realizes that the right move for his family is to stay where they are. Bandit goes to work to pull the towering “For Sale” sign from the ground and triumphantly throw it into the street. Bandit collapses after exerting such force from pulling the huge wooden sign out of the ground. While lying in the grass of his home, Chilli comes running to her husband, who has become the hero the whole family needed once again, and jumps on her Bandit with joy. Bluey and Bingo follow suit, and at this point in the episode, you might be like me and be doing your best not to ugly cry in front of your kids.

God uses “lucky” moments in our lives to shape the path He wants us to take. Sometimes, the ways of the world, like taking a big promotion, seem like the right thing to do, but sometimes, God wants us where the ways of the Kingdom work best for our lives, places where we can build the strongest relationships for our families and for those around us. Sometimes God does call us to the unknown to grow His Kingdom and to venture off in new places for His purpose. So, sometimes, those difficult decisions are not the easiest to make and we are all desperate for clear signs in those life altering moments when we face a huge choice we must make. In moments like that, look for the signs, pray for guidance, and take the path that glorifies God the most. While the Heelers would have made new friends and had unknown adventures if Bandit had accepted the promotion, he decides to place his family’s current love for their home and their city above the comfort of money and position, and the gratitude the family has at the end of the episode points to Bandit making the right conclusion. This decision is reaffirmed in “The Surprise” a surprise, bonus episode that brings Season 3 to a close, but I will not ruin that surprise, you will just have to watch the episode for yourself. Or, if you have never watched “Bluey”. just start binging all three seasons. You will not regret it, that I can tell you that for sure.

Just like you will, also, not regret clicking the image below and hearing the new release from Joe L Barnes called “Wind of Love”.