Life Lessons from Superman

Bet you can’t guess what movie we watched this weekend?

little boys dressed as super heroes truly melt my heart… especially this little boy… sitting at breakfast with his tussled hair and sheepish grin…

We had a family movie afternoon yesterday and watched The 1978 Original Superman with the big 3 while our three year old was napping.  He woke up in time to catch the heroic finish and then fly around the basement with his cape blazing behind him while the theme music blasted from our stereo. 

Good times after a long week.

I have to confess the movie didn’t hold my interest entirely.  But, I was struck by a scene at the end.   Superman literally spun the world around backwards to turn back time and rescue Lois Lane.  After saving her life he comes down to her and she lets him have it.  She has no idea what he did for her and that her life was saved and instead whines on and on about her car that wouldn’t start and all of the things that went wrong that afternoon and where was he when she needed him. 

Now, God is way, WAY bigger than Superman, but it struck me none the less that I often react like Lois Lane to God.   I present him my list of complaints, my grumbles and “where were you when”  “why did you let all this bad stuff happen..”  meanwhile I have NO perspective on all that DIDN’T happen or how all those bad things really worked together for a larger good that I in my finite, mortal mind can’t see or don’t see and may never see.  It definitely made me think. 

After watching Man of Steel with Scott and The Original Superman with the kids this weekend, I have to first confess that neither held my interest entirely.  Man of Steel had WAY, WAY more action scenes than I cared for.  I really liked the dialogue portions and the character development but dozed off for a bit while he and General Zod blew up everything in their path.  But secondly, after learning more about the actual story of Superman, I must say I really like the character of Superman.  He strikes me as the most humble of all the super hero's.  I feel like I change my mind on this often as I learn more about each character.   It’s a close toss up for me between Captain America and Superman.  But, for now, Superman is my favorite Super hero.  Not saying it’s my favorite Super Hero movie, but my favorite actual hero.  (wow what a tangent this post turned out to be)