One of my achievements in life is that I have never seen any of the
Star Wars films. And this is even more remarkable as I live in a
house where everyone else is a fan of Star Wars – we have DVDs,
books, Lego models, light sabres, night lights and probably more.
And this summer, yet another Star Wars film was released. Solo
is the back story of Hans Solo, the character played by Harrison Ford
in the original movies.
Star
Wars, like the Marvel / DC comics, is a franchise that seems to offer
endless scope for prequels, sequels and spin-offs, partly driven by
interest in the lives of the characters. With the advent of the
internet there are many fora for discussing questions about various
characters' origins, motivations, thoughts and feelings, and what
they did next. And the literary genre of fan fiction gives stories
to answer these questions and even to create parallel plot-lines
where enemies become friends (or even lovers!) or characters from
different stories meet. And just in case you think this is a modern
phenomenon confined to sci-fi geeks, “Old Friends and New Fancies” (1913) by Sybil G. Brinton combines
characters from Jane Austen's six major novels in one story.
As human beings we were
created by God to be like him and so we share some of his attributes.
One of these is an interest in the world around us and particularly
in other people. Jesus reminds us that God is so interested in us
that he knows how many hairs are on each of our heads (Matthew 10:30)! It is this characteristic that drives us to create
literature and art and to engage in science, which are all
explorations of the world and humankind. But other people are not
just objects of curiosity to be investigated; we are created to be
social creatures, and on the whole most of us enjoy being with other
people. We gather in groups with shared interests or to learn new
things, or we gather simply to connect with others.
In the Creation story,
the Bible says that after God made the first human he declared that
“It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). This is
a great truth about human nature. But God's solution to this was not
just to make the man a social creature, nor just to give him animals
to interact with, but to give him a wife: “That is why a man leaves
his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one
flesh” (Genesis 2:24). This is the verse Jesus quotes when
discussing marriage (Mark 10:6-9), grounding the biblical
understanding of marriage not in a social construct that can be
redefined to whatever society likes but in our very DNA, in the way
God has made us.
However, Genesis 3
reminds us that we are also sinful creatures, who have rebelled
against God and fall short of his design for us. And this affects
everything we do. So our interest in others can get twisted into
nosiness and gossip, and our relationships and marriages can break
down. Thankfully, Jesus came not just to teach us the truth but also
to die so that when we fall short of perfection, our sins can be
forgiven, and we can be a new creation.
Image from http://tshirtgroove.com/ive-never-seen-star-wars-t-shirt/
