I want a pet dragon!

Growing up, one of my favorite movies was The Neverending Story. I wanted to be Atreyu. I wanted to fly on the back of Falkor. I loved the movie because of its excitement and adventure along with its creative and unique characters. In this movie the parallel fantasy world is being destroyed by the Nothing, which represents people’s lack of imagination in the real world.

I also wanted to be Bastian the one reading The Neverending Story in the attic. Bastian is the nerd, the outcast, and is rejected by his peers. Why would I want to be him? Because he gets to be the hero! He’s the one who finally gives into his imagination and in doing so saves the parallel fantasy universe. Plus, he rides Falkor in the end!

I recently watched How to Train Your Dragon. After leaving the theater I of course wanted to get my own dragon. I mean riding on the back of a dragon – seriously just as cool as riding on Falkor… if not cooler because the dragon is a scary beast. Oh, wait… that’s the point. The scary beast doesn’t turn out to be so scary. And yet again I left the theater wanting to be Hiccup. Hiccup is the nerd, the outcast, and is rejected by his peers. Why would I want to be him? Because he gets to be the hero! He’s the one who dared to do the unthinkable. He befriended a beast and in the end saves both the dragons and his people.

In movies we tend to root for the underdog. Yet, we don’t do this in the real world.

We may not root for the underdog – but God does. After all God called Abraham in his old age, Moses even with a speech impediment, Jeremiah even though he was young, Paul who was the leading persecutor of Christians, and let’s not forget the mother of Jesus, Mary, a teenager who wasn’t even close to being a queen.

Then there were all the times that Jesus rooted for the underdog. The Samaritan woman at the well who was clearly not a Jew and I’m sorry to say a bit smutty. He transformed fishermen into fishers of people. He ate with Zacchaeus a short sinner and tax collector. He gave a second chance to a woman guilty of adultery. He even dared to touch a leper.

Maybe we have a lack of imagination as to who is worthy. Maybe we need to dare to do the unthinkable.