About Vampires, Werewolves and True Love

A few weeks ago I asked our students to tell me about this phenomenon  sweeping the nation called “The Twilight Saga”. These are a series of books and movies about vampires, werewolves and love (and a very “hot” guy named Jacob if you believe some of the girls). Yeah, I know… I don’t get it either. Several of the students gave me a very dynamic summary of the storyline but finally had to give up because there wasn’t enough time and there was just way too much information to properly tell the story.

But What About Our Story?

I then asked them to tell me about our story. The one found in the Bible. The one that tells of the love of God for us. The telling of that story wasn’t nearly as dynamic and was spotty in a few places. There  were no complaints that they didn’t have enough time and that there was way too much information to properly tell the story.

Nooooo… He Didn’t Just Say That… Did He?

So I asked them what happened in the retelling of our story. The retelling of the vampire story was detailed and energetic. Not so much with  our story. Then one of our students put it as bluntly as I’ve ever heard it. He said “Girls don’t find Jesus hot.”

Say Again???

Yeah, that kinda took me back for a second, too, because that statement on the surface is unsettling. However, I immediately recognized the wisdom and truth in that statement. That one statement is a fairly accurate and unfortunate summary regarding the mindset of society as a whole. We’ve managed to push Jesus aside for the next “hot” thing. This isn’t just a youth thing, either. I suspect if I would’ve asked adults to do the same thing, many of them would’ve responded in the exact same way. Fortunately, this is a problem that resolves itself. All it requires is that we take a good look at our story, its hero, its triumphant ending and take it to heart. Ours truly is “The Greatest Story Ever Told!”