{source}<iframe style=”float: left; border: 1px solid #000000; background-color: #C0C0C0; padding: 2px; margin: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -khtml-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px;” width=”400″ height=”225″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/MZoO8QVMxkk?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>{/source}Marvel Studios’ latest blockbuster, The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, was an action packed good time. Though perhaps you should not trust my taste in movies; I love and own most of the Ernest P. Worrell movies. Avengers 2 gets my seal of approval because, like Ernest Goes to Camp, it is good, (mostly) clean fun. It’s a superhero movie and is therefore violent, but not overly gory. And I am thankful they did not throw in a sexy scene just because they could.
As most of the Avengers characters have their own movie series all to themselves, the first Avengers suffered a bit from a lack of emotional buy in for me because they did not have to spend the time letting us get to know the characters. We already knew them. It was straight to action. So it was with the second installment: rip-roaring from the start. However, I found this sequel to be tugging at my heartstrings a little more as they revealed some of what our heroes had to lose as they faced impending death. I’ll stop there so I won’t spoil anything for you.
Most comic book/super hero movies serve as a reminder for me of both the courageous and beautiful side of humanity and simultaneously the dark, flawed reality in which we live.
Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, and Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, inadvertently create a hostile artificial intelligence, Ultron, who uses robotic technology to try to end human life. Like most movies featuring A.I., the thinking computer designed as an ally sees humanity’s track record of war and self-destruction and decides the only way to peace is to end all human life. The menacing robot, voiced by James Spader, tells the Avengers, “I know you’re good people. I know you mean well. But you just didn’t think it through. There is only one path to peace… your extinction.”
This week, the Lord has been reminding me of the truth that we are made in his image. We are “wonderfully made.” It is sometimes easy for me to get wrapped up in my own brokenness and the depravity of man. With Baltimore and Nepal dominating the news this week, it is hard to not be overwhelmed with sadness for our shattered world. Is the world worth saving? God’s answer is an unequivocal and emphatic, “YES!” John 3:16 explains it well: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
One of my favorite hymns, “How Great Thou Art,” serves as a powerful reminder for me in these moments when I am overcome by how big our problems are. Take a moment to consider God’s splendor and feel his peace as you realize God loves you deeply and he is much bigger than your troubles.
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”
Death has been conquered. Our future secured. Jesus is Lord. Peace be with you.
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