“I tell you the truth, those who do not accept the Dream of the Divine like a child would will never experience it” (Luke 18.17).
What is it about lightning and robots? Maybe it goes back to 1939’s Frankenstein where an electrical storm gives life to the Creature. But it happens over and over again in movies. For instance Short Circuit, released in May 1986, features Johnny 5, a robot built to transport nuclear weapons, who becomes self aware via a bolt from the blue.
Self-aware machines are pretty dangerous since they can sometimes decide that humanity is an annoyance (see Terminator 2, for example, that we talked about last summer) and set about to destroy all of us. Johnny 5, thankfully, is the other sort of robot—the friendly Frosty the Snowman figure who is helpful, kind, and curious about this world in which it’s suddenly found itself. As often happens, this little lost robot finds kind and curious humans who are more interested in his budding awareness than in perhaps making millions selling this metal being to the highest tech bidder.
As an audience, we get to laugh and enjoy this innocent being sitting in front of the TV learning English and what it means to be human. I’m a little wary of scenes like this since when done badly they can be as dull as watching the spinning blue wheel on my computer screen. But done well, they can capture something that’s easily forgotten, the wonder and strangeness of this world that surrounds us.
And maybe that’s what helped make this movie as successful as it was: that chance to experience an almost childlike discovery of the world; something that, the older we get, seems harder and harder to do.
What does it mean after all to approach things as children? Sure Johnny 5’s innocence has a charm, but we know that a little skepticism is healthy. I mean this movie’s a cute story, but putting electronics in a thunderstorm more often leaves circuits fried and useless than alive and making new friends with the neighbors. Those things can’t happen.
But what might happen? I don’t mean in the realm of physics and engineering which are pretty clear that high voltage is something we’re best to steer clear of; I’m thinking in the realm of those places that are just out of touch, with those things that are invisible to our eyes.
Maybe that piece of metal might not be able to develop love and empathy, but what about the stony and hard hearts that surround us sometimes and, more often, fills our chests? Could they transform, find themselves in a reality that they don’t understand? Could something made of greed and power become something reflective of the Divine?
It could be that Jesus’ words in the verse above is about allowing ourselves to imagine something that we can barely envision based on what we know and see. It might even be that we might have to relearn things about this world and the people within it.
And it might not even take a lightning strike to make it happen.
Help me embrace the vulnerable innocence of Your dreams.