I was probably seven or eight years old when Dad had us all stuffed into his old Volvo station wagon and pulled up to a fellow's house just outside of Hershey, Pennsylvania. When Dad came out of the man's house, he threw open the back of the vehicle and slid in two crates.
Those crates were stuffed with comic books.
Yeee hah.
This began my venture into the world of the mortals who could achieve feats only dreamed by the rest of us (and of course, they were dreams - sprung from the imaginations of people like Stan Lee and Bob Kane).
Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the original Iron man (who wore a bulky yellow suit and looked like the Tin Man's evil brother), Plastic Man, Flash, Captain America, Hulk, Sub Mariner (too weird for my taste), Fantastic Four and so many others.
Their exploits were phenomenal. I knew every detail about these heroes of the 60s comic book era. I studied and memorized their powers. We had some old ones, to be sure. In some of our collection, Batman had a gun, Peter Parker kept fighting a schoolboy nemesis named Flash, and Superman spent too much time with some magical goblin named Mr. Mxyzptlk.
I did see a lot of weaknesses in the characters - a necessary part of the story line. Superman had kryptonite. Spiderman had temporary web fluid and teen angst. Hulk would turn back to Bruce Banner occasionally. Batman was, well, a great athlete but could get his comeuppance since he had no superpowers.
The Good News Club I attended taught me about One who had much more than any one of these literary figures. Better yet, Jesus was real. He is real. And He, above all else, is immortal and without a weakness. In fact, He took on the form of a man to accept the weaknesses of the flesh and He still won it all!
That's where my interest changed. This Jesus was the real hero. I wanted to learn more about Him and be like Him.
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death... Phlppns 3:8-10
