Santa needs a hero

I watch cartoons every morning with Allie as we work through our morning get-ready-for-school routine. The past two weeks the majority of her cartoon shows feature Santa in some broken down situation depending on the characters of the cartoon show to save Christmas. SAVE CHRISTMAS! Santa's the victim of some eleventh hour calamity and it's up to Handy Manny or Mickey Mouse or the Imagination Movers to save Christmas. If the mouse or the little kid or a red-nosed reindeer doesn't get Santa back on the road, Christmas is canceled. Some hero Santa is. It's amazing he's lasted this long.

Believe it or not, these are all the best ingredients to make a great story. It's the classic David and Goliath template. Our hearts are built to respond to this story. Santa is cast as Israel. Our little cartoon character is young David. The calamity that sidelines Santa is our Goliath. Just as David takes down Goliath, our little cartoon character ingeniously and bravely eliminates or navigates through calamity saving Christmas. We love this kind of story. Do you know why? This biblical style of narrative points to Jesus. It's God's idea that Hollywood is using.

So let's use these stories to redeem the true Christmas story. The boy David who takes down a villian and becomes King of Israel points to a future child from an obscure village and a backwater family that, in an incredible plot-twist, conquers sin and even death. He rises from the dead and now reigns as not only King of Israel but King of the whole world. All authority in Heaven and Earth have been given to Him.

Christmas is the story of this Unlikely Hero's birth. Let's redeem the story.

After you get that done, monitor Santa's progress at NORAD.



- Posted from my iPhone with BlogPress