When Charles Schulz was a kid growing up in Minneapolis, one day a local movie theater offered free candy bars to the first 100 customers. He was 101st.
Charlie Brown, in Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip, which he drew for nearly 50 years, chronically faced similar misfortunes. His luck always seemed to run out: coaching a losing baseball team, trying to muster the nerve to say something to the little red-haired girl, or trying to kick the football before Lucy pulled it away. Even Snoopy treated Charlie Brown with disrespect, refuting the notion that “a man’s best friend is his dog.”
Born on this day, November 26, in 1922, Schulz often invested his peanut-sized characters with adult outlooks. The strip can be read and enjoyed by children and adults alike, but most grade school children have not developed the sophisticated awareness expressed in the strip regarding life’s bumpy road.
In the strip, which has continued to circulate since Schulz’s death in 2000, Charlie Brown and friends remind us there is an everyday quality to every day that includes difficulty and disappointment.
At at Schulz’s funeral, a Peanuts fan said the cartoonist was able to turn depression and grief into joy.
Presbyterian Minister Robert L. Short saw Christian truths in the strip and wrote books called The Gospel According to Peanuts and The Parables of Peanuts. Published in the 1960s, the books are still available. A reviewer said the Parables book “sheds more light on the Christian faith and how it is to be lived than many more ‘serious’ theological works.”
In this Thanksgiving season, if we are facing difficulty, we may not find much ground for thankfulness. But perhaps we can give thanks for the strength and determination to keep going. An optimistic preacher told his congregation they should give thanks for everything---even potholes in the road. If we cannot thank God for potholes -- and I confess I can't -- perhaps we can give thanks for roads and for cars to drive on the roads, potholes and all.
As Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang run into various roadblocks, Linus often turns preacher, quoting pertinent Bible verses. Schulz, who was a long-time member of the Church of God, seems to speak through Linus to remind us that the Scriptures offer encouragement along the road of life.
Verses for Today:
“. . . Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
“. . . And a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).
Each day through New Year's Day, January 1, 2013, daily inspirational thoughts will appear on this website, in keeping with Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year's Day. These are from my book, Reflections for the Festive Season. © 2002. All rights reserved.
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