No offense, but if you haven’t heard of Bluey, an animated show about a dog family, and the main character is a six-year-old – Bluey – who has a younger sibling (Bingo) and supportive parents who have as creative of an imagination as her, then you lived under a rock up until this very moment. I also forgive you if you’re not a parent or grandparent of a toddler in 2026, otherwise your chances of not knowing anything about the show just went up.
For me personally, it is an inspiration for how I can aide my own
young son’s blossoming personality and imagination without sabotaging it. The show’s
creators do an amazing job depicting Bandit, the father, as all-in and constantly
coming up with games to engage his kids. Nearly every episode shows him actively
participating in whatever Bluey and Bingo’s imagination concoct for that episode.
In one episode, Bluey wants to play Copycat, and the episode begins
with her doing exactly what her dad does right when he gets up for the day. She
does a remarkable job, until she spots an injured bird. Immediately, her
instincts to care for the less fortunate kick in and puts all of her focus on caring
for this bird.
Chances are high that if you’re a parent, you’re not going to
spoil it for your child – if you do not have a child, you likely don’t care enough
about the outcome of one Bluey episode to worry about whether I provide spoilers
or not. Of course, if you do care regardless, don’t read further.
Here’s the spoiler: the bird dies.
(I promise it's a show for kids)
This is important because it looks to completely derail Bluey, and
what child wouldn’t be?
Then, Bluey decides to do something that changes the trajectory of
the episode: she plays Copycat with Bingo, her younger sister, and Bing plays
the bird. In the episode, this is clearly Bluey’s way of coping with the pain.
Bingo, like any young sister not older than preschool age, does little to
follow the script, and it aggravates Bluey because she wants it to be identical
to her bird experience with her dad.
She wants it to be the exact same.
Early on, when Bluey and her dad find the bird, the bird nips at dad and in response, with fist clenched, he whispers to himself, “Toughen up, Bandit!”
At the beginning of Bluey’s Copycat activity with her younger
sister moments later, Bluey tells Bingo she has to nip her, like the bird did to
Bandit. When Bingo bites Bluey, she tells Bingo that was not a nip, but then she
whispers to herself, “Toughen up, Bluey!”
At this point, you’ll just have to watch the episode. At the end
of the episode, while mom and Bluey are sitting on the porch steps and Bingo is
flying around like a living bird even though she should be pretend “dead,” dad reminds
Bluey that she forgot to stop copying him.
“Oh yeah!” She says, though she makes no attempt to keep the game
going.
Yet, throughout the episode, she does copy dad, even when she is pretending
Bingo is the dead bird. Not only does she tell herself to toughen up like her
dad did, but when both Bluey’s dad and her found out the real bird died, Bandit
said, “…there’s nothing we can do. It’s out of our hands.”
When Bingo stays alive as a pretend bird and flies around, Bluey initially
gets frustrated because they are supposed to pretend as accurately as possible.
When mom connects the dots and asks, “That’s not how you wanted the game to go,
is it?”
“That’s okay. There’s nothing we can do. It’s out of our hands” –
exactly what dad said.
When we have an amazing experience with Jesus, we want to copy him
and everything he did and does. We want to change everything in our own lives
and the lives of others, which is a noble desire.
But, because we are not God, we often come across points where we
don’t intentionally mimic the way of Jesus. Oswald Chambers calls it, “the
drudgery of the valley” versus the height of the mountaintop. When we have a breathtaking
experience with God, whether in prayer, worship, long walks in nature, etc. these
are mountaintop experiences. The valley is where temptations, humiliation,
slip-ups, and un-Christlike behavior is likely going to occur. In addition, it’s
also where it feels like there is distance from God – struggle, hurt, pain,
obstacles, etc. But just because we’re in the valley, there’s no law against
taking the Word of God and his presence with us. In fact, this is precisely what
God wants.
When Bluey was temporarily interrupted from her time with her dad
and focused on the bird, then with Bingo acting like a pretend bird, she didn’t
forget her dad’s words. They were “hidden in her heart”, like Psalm 119:11
says.
Maybe the injured bird of your life places you smack dab in the middle
of a valley you never wanted. Who does want a valley? Maybe you shout, “This is
not how it is supposed to go!” But then you remember to “Trust in the Lord with
all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding,” (Proverbs 3:5-6) or
to “not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God…will guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Bluey took her dad’s
words and applied them to her own life when she felt like she was on her own in
dealing with her pain. The words of her dad pulled her through the valley of losing
a bird she cared for and about.
Chambers adds, “The last time you were on the mountain with God, you
saw that all power in heaven and earth belonged to Jesus. Will you see it now
in the valley?”
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