Of Mice and Men and God

Tonight we watched the movie The Tale of Despereaux. It contains some wonderful lines, mostly narrated by Sigourney Weaver. 

“If you know anything about fairy tales, you know that a hero never appears until the world really needs one.” When I heard this I was reminded of the Old Testament (yes, that's how my mind sometimes works). In Judges the nation of Israel keeps getting saved by God, then eventually turning from him only to be oppressed by their enemies until they cry out to God who then raises up a hero at their darkest hour to save them. Gideon. Samson. Deborah. Unfortunately, the cycle kept continuing. But God kept raising up heroes. Even before then there was Noah, Abraham and Moses. All unlikely heroes. But all willing to be used by God. And God kept doing it: David, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel. When the Israel needed a hero, God put one on the scene. And when the world was at it's darkest, Christ was born. Again, an unlikely hero. Born in a stable. The "illegitimate" son of a carpenter and a teenage girl. Yet, the Son of God. And Savior of the world. 

Which reminds me of a few other lines from the movie:

"Do you think there's a bit of light somewhere in the world? I think there is; you just need to know where to find it." It's also about bringing the Light to others. We're all prisoners to sin. We all need hope in the darkness.

"The story said she was a prisoner but that wasn't totally true because she had hope and whenever you have hope, you're never really anybody's prisoner."

"Ok, remember when we said that grief was the strongest thing a person could feel? Well, it isn't. It's forgiveness because a single act of forgiveness can change everything."


I like it when fairy tales carry wonderful snippets of truth.