The Bare Necessities

A couple things struck me while watching Jungle Book with my daughter last night...I hadn't seen the film in a long time.

One of the characters actually quotes Jesus:

Greater love hath no one than he who lays down his life for his friend.
-Bagheera the Panther

Jesus says this when talking to his disciples about the importance of love just before he died:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (King James Version)

Interestingly enough (to me anyway), while this film was released in 1967, and the New International Version New Testament wasn't published until 1973, the NIV quote (except for the "hath") sounds closer to what was said in the movie:

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Something else that I noticed was how the song The Bare Necessities speaks a lot to our culture today - and seems to echo the sentiments of a subculture that's trying to be less consumerist and less about our stuff, so that we can be more about generosity and giving. Take a look at some of the words...

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life
[...]
And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you

This is what Jesus had to say about the very same things:

Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?" Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.