I was delighted to see the attention that the film The Theory of Everything received in the BAFTAs on Sunday.

Like everyone else who has seen it I enjoyed the fantastic acting and the moving story.

It is a tribute to the cast, directors and production team that Stephen Hawking allowed his “own” voice to be used in the film and that the entire family supported it helped in the production and attended the ceremony.

However I found myself watching the film with my particularly Christian spectacles. I hadn't known that Stephen Hawking’s wife Jane – on whose book the film is based – was a Christian and time and again I was struck by the interplay between her faith and her husbands questioning agnosticism. This was highlighted on a number of occasions in the film.

One moment above all others sticks in my mind.

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After the point at which strain was beginning to show in the Hawking marriage Stephen was taken seriously ill in Europe. Jane rushes to his side and a sympathetic doctor suggests to her that it might be kinder not to attempt any treatment….. There is not a moment’s hesitation before she commits to the operation and the continuing and yet more demanding care which it will necessitate. Her motives…well they are not spelled out in the film – it is left to us to reflect.

Faith in the sanctity of human life and the God who creates it….? Unswerving belief in the importance of her husbands work as part of that creation?

A sense of putting aside her increasing attraction to the Church choirmaster because of her commitment to her husband and her marriage?

Questions about faith in the sanctity of human life are raised time and time again in society today and the default presumption is the one proposed to Jane Hawking that it would be somehow better and kinder to allow the sick person to die quietly and without intervention.

She didn't do that and the film tells the story of the effect that this had on both their lives.

The break-up of their marriage, good relationships for both of them and the internationally respected work of Stephen Hawking.

There is a temptation to suppose that Stephen Hawking’s achievements are the justification for Jane’s decision.

This is a story about life, love and achievement – but then that is exactly the subject of each of our stories and the continuation of a life cannot be judged by what a person does, or might later, achieve.

I have had the privilege of knowing two other people who, like Hawking, have lived with different forms of motor neurone.

One has died the other, like Stephen Hawking, is still alive. Their quality of living, their love and their significant achievements in their own fields make theirs inspirational stories too.

It may be that in some cases the answer to that question the doctor asked Jane Hawking should be ‘yes’ but there should be no presumption that this is the right answer or that we assume that lives that are physically limited are in some way diminished.

We are blessed by those with whom we live, those that we love and those whose achievements we admire and Stephen Hawking is just one, famous, example of the value of every life.