A billboard caught my eye one morning as I was stopped in
traffic near the Hermitage post office.
It was advertising a show to be held at the Bridgestone Arena in
December featuring various superheroes from the Marvel comic books. It says, “Assembling to save the
universe.” My thought was, “Oh, if that
were only true.”
Is it just me and my advanced age or does it seem the
universe is going to hell in a hand basket?
It would be nice to think that a group of hunky super beings dressed in
primary colors was assembling to save the universe. I can imagine Spider-Man swooping down and disabling
a group of evil terrorists by capturing them in a gigantic spider web after
which Superman would gather up the whole mess of them and fly them away to a
far off galaxy. Now, see, even that is
fantasy since Spiderman is from Marvel Comics and Superman is from DC
Comics. They could never work together.
What is up with this generation’s fascination with superheroes
anyway? Yes, I grew up watching the Adventures of Superman starring the real
Superman, George Reeves. The grand feats he accomplished on my small,
black and white TV screen were amazing to a naïve, young girl. Today, the movie theaters are crowded with male,
20-somethings who live, eat and breathe all things super. They can’t seem to get enough of Spiderman, Batman,
The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Captain America and The X-Men. In 1979, there were two movies featuring
superheroes. In 2014, there have been
five. In 1979, I had two babies and a
mortgage. There was no time for movies
or the secret world of superheroes.
Despite our current fascination and my desperate hope, there
is no group of superheroes assembling to save the universe. We created this mess and it is up to us to
fix it. The news is filled with stories
of religious fanatics who are willing to sacrifice their lives to take one or
more of ours. And now, if a cutthroat
terrorist organization such as ISIS weren’t enough, we have the deadly Ebola
virus sneaking across our borders to worry about. If we ever needed a superhero, it would be
now. Maybe that is why so many of our
young people bury their heads in comic books.
There have been many other times in history when the
situation looked bleak. Times when evil
seemed to be overcoming good. I wasn’t
around during World War II but my parents were.
It was a time when trying to ignore evil far removed from home seemed
like a good idea until it wasn’t. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to evil by saying, “The only thing we have to
fear is fear itself” and a bunch of teenaged, superheroes like my dad sailed
off to confront the evil. British prime
minister, Winston Churchill told us to “Never, never, never give up.” That is advice we need to remember today when
evil seems to be winning and superheroes are few and far between.
There is bit of good advice for these times found in Matthew
24:6 of the Bible. It says, “You will
hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed.” That advice may be hard to live out in evil
times but the scripture says, “see to it that you are not alarmed” not just
“don’t be alarmed.” It implies that it
won’t be easy to not be concerned. We
have to make an effort to trust that good will always overcome evil. “I have told you these things, so that in Me
you may have peace. In this world you
will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
So, you see, a Super Hero is assembling to save the universe after all. Praise God!
