Tip of My Iceberg

At Christmas, when our family was together, we played a game asking crazy questions to determine what most people thought. The idea was to be in agreement with most people. One of my favorite questions asked if we were a superhero, what power would we want to have?

Almost everyone said flying.

I didn’t. I wanted super strength. I thought it would be more useful.

Superheroes grab our attention. The Marvel and DC franchises bring us heroes that can do incredible acts to help others. All of them, however, were flawed, and less than perfect, and their problems often impacted others, especially those they worked with.

Sloane and her first-grade classmates were tasked by their teacher to dress up as superheroes. Melody went to town, the designer-minded mom that she is, and created an outfit fit for Wonder Woman. Complete with more glitter than any teacher would ever appreciate.

Sloane loved her appearance. She totally gloried in the glitter.

Nobody would ever consider Sloane as Wonder Woman. Her stature is far below that of the character, and as tough as she is, she couldn’t/wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Don’t we all want to be super at something? Nothing pedestrian, mind you. Not a super laundry person. (I’ve been told I’m really good at that.) Not a super handyman. (My husband definitely is not good at that.) Something that brings hope to others and a sense of purposefulness to us would be worthy of superhero status.

But we’re all flawed. We all have issues that hurt others, impacting them in negative ways we wouldn’t choose. Superhero status might allow us to help some but it wouldn’t prevent us from hurting others.

We long for those we trust to be those superheroes in our lives, people who will come to our aid when life is heavy and harmful and won’t judge us for the mistakes we make. Those who see us and know us well enough to be safe for us.

Even the best people are flawed. No matter how much they want to be there for us.

It’s why Jesus came to earth, not to be a superhero, but to be the Son of Man who would experience life as we do and yet help us live life supernaturally.

The apostle Paul had a glorious vision of heaven, an act so magnificent that it could have gone to his head and caused him to be cocky. So he was gifted with a thorn in the flesh–thorn being the same as the word “stake” on which people were impaled. Like the cross of Jesus. A messenger of the enemy of our souls who sought to destroy Paul.

“No danger than of walking around high and mighty! At first, I didn’t think of it as a gift and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then He told me, ‘My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift.’” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Our flaws and faults give us the humility to see Jesus as the only One who can provide us with strength when we’re weak, and hope when we’re feeling despair.

Jesus is the only true Superhero.