A Childhood Reflection on Heroes
By, Rev. Howard C. Earle, Jr., D.Min.
I would describe my childhood as pretty typical for a boy in America. I played all sports, and my backyard and sandlot careers were legendary. My stats speak for themselves. Along with my stellar boyhood athletic career, there was also my active imagination and fascination with fictional heroes. As a child of the 80’s, Christopher Reeve was my Superman. I would watch all the animated shows for Batman, Plastic Man, Aqua Man, and all of the other exceptional men who had supernatural strengths and abilities that made them superheroes. After consulting with Google, I have discovered that superheroes are not uniquely only to America. In fact, any nation that has an animation studio has at least one homegrown superhero.
Superman was one of my favorite superheroes as a child. I was the kid who would tie a bath towel around his neck and take flight. I made sure to see any new Superman movie that came out and I was up on all my important Superman facts. Even though the narrative was always the same; a villain would threaten the world, Clark Kent would enter his booth, Superman would emerge and save the world. It didn’t matter how large the threat or sinister the plot, Superman’s supersonic speed and superhuman strength were always more than adequate. It was always the elements that comprised the “super” in superhero that enamored me. I couldn’t wait to see superman take flight, blast through a wall, lift a truck, or some other superhuman feat all to save the world from destruction.
Enter Christmas! The world was in trouble to put it lightly. Actually, the world was in crisis but no one knew because life looked normal. People lived their lives, working and fellowshipping, all the while they were in peril. The world was on fire yet there were no flames. Sin had a death grip on humanity that could not be loosened with normal human strength. What would it take to save the world from impeding doom? If it were left up to me, saving the world would definitely take something super, maybe not even a super man but super men. Maybe it would take a group of people like the Avengers or the Justice League. But that’s not what God did to save the world. Our superhero didn’t make a grand entrance. He didn’t break through any walls or fly in from the sky. Instead, he entered the world in the most obscure way; as a baby born to peasant parents lying in a manger. What a strange way to save the world!
Who would have thought that of all the ways to come in and save the day, that God would do it in this most peculiar way. God sent a king, but he was a baby. The king didn’t sit on a throne. He was laid in a manger. His arrival wasn’t announced in the palace. It was announced outside of town to a band of shepherds. There was a great standoff in the end, death on one side and Jesus on the other: a fight to the finish. I’m all grown up now, but I read the Christmas story with childlike wonder. My superman doesn’t wear a cape or tights. In addition to being faster than a bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, He also carried the sins of the world. He hung on a cross as an innocent man to die a death intended for me. He did all this long before I knew I needed it or chose Him.
Let Christmas reinforce the notion, not all heroes wear capes. But we know Jesus certainly puts the “super” in superhero. Connect with your inner child this Christmas and grant Jesus superhero status. Celebrate the fact that he suffered, bled, and died; all so that you live today.
