Quite unexpectedly, Harrison Ford’s face appears on the huge movie screen. It makes sense, I reason. His character is dead, but this is the newest Star Wars movie after all. Certainly the film’s makers have the artistic license if they want Han Solo to return once more, if only to pass on some good advice to his son, the cruel and heartless Ben, AKA Kylo Ren.

The seven of us have come to a 7:45 a.m. showing of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Yes, that’s 7:45 in the morning. Who would have thought you could go to the movies at that time of day? Apparently you can, however, when it’s a movie that’s hot and in high demand, like any in the Star Wars franchise.

Bleary-eyed and still a little groggy, we’d made our way to the theater—my wife, our daughter and her boyfriend, our son, his wife, and their 12-week-old son. The movie was good and very worth the early hour.

As I saw Harrison Ford on the screen, a thought struck me. This was my grandson’s first trip to a movie theater and Harrison Ford is in the movie. A little over 26 years prior, our son’s first theater movie was The Fugitive, starring none other than Harrison Ford. 

I’ve told that story countless times, how at two weeks old, our son “saw” his first movie. He had, of course, slept through the whole thing as his mom and I had carefully coordinated his feeding and nap time so that would be the case.

All that aside, I was struck by the irony that our son’s and grandson’s first movies had Harrison Ford in them. Who would have thought 26 years ago that that would be the case? It’s a sheer coincidence of course, but those sorts of things tend to stand out to me. Does it have any sort of meaning at all? 

Time and the passage of time fascinate me. How strange it would have been to sit in the theater that night while The Fugitive played on the big screen and see into the future over two and a half decades to our grandson’s first movie, realizing the irony that Harrison Ford appears in both movies.

To most people things like that don’t matter perhaps, and don’t mean anything. And maybe they really don’t. To me, however, it seems that there must simply be some kind of meaning attached to this incident. Some bigger, deeper, meaning that the universe is trying to convey to me, to us.

I know this doesn’t happen (at least not in our human, three-dimensional existence), but sometimes my mind wonders if two events like that can exist in some sort of parallel continuum. 

That the trip to see The Fugitive is still occurring somewhere, some place, in some way. And that it and this early morning trip to see the latest Star Wars installment are somehow connected by a silver cord that only exists in another dimension. For God, this is probably the case, as He is not restricted by time, space, or any other dimension.

Perhaps, more than anything, the whole thing serves as a testament to the longevity of Harrison Ford’s acting career. It certainly has stood the test of time. That’s the only thing about this coincidence that I can say for sure.