Voltron and the Bible

I was born in '74 so by the time the 80's came to town I was already exposed to new concepts in imagination due to the likes of George Lucas and a variety of TV science fiction. (sidenote: I also got to appreciate Ronald Reagan beating Jimmy Carter as I was just beginning to understand our democracy at age 5.)

Anyway in the early 80's I was exposed to Voltron: Defender of the Universe. I really enjoyed the show mostly because of the team that had to work together in order to survive. There was something very intriguing about trusting your life to a teammate.

For those of you unfamiliar with Voltron, the Lion team was made up of 5 members and each rode in a robotic lion. Each lion had its unique abilities. The lions would transform into a body part and join together to make one larger robot that was nearly invincible. Even more involved was Vehicle Voltron that was comprised of 15 members.

I used to imagine making up my own Voltron team with friends of mine in grade school. In my mind each one had their strengths and specific roles and I do not know where we were going to find crime to fight but that wasn't nearly as important as looking cool in a uniform and vehicle. I had a tree house in the backyard that I was intending to be our lair. I drew up plans for our underground garage to house our suped up go carts. Of course, I was sidetracked by reality so nothing went past the design stage. I was torn though when it came to colors. I wanted to be the black lion because I wanted to be the leader of the pack. But that meant wearing the red uniform. I would have to be the blue lion in order to wear the cool black uniform that Sven wore. Ah, such a dilemma.

Anyway, as I grew up I learned more about the Bible's teaching regarding the church being made of of different members and how they must work together to function as a healthy body. Believe it or not, Voltron becomes a very simple visual aid to support that understanding. For in Voltron each limb of the body is a person. So the analogy is very clear.

I am not going as far to say that I want to start the Church of Voltron, but at least some Christian children's marketing group should develop something along this line to help reinforce the fundamentals of a healthy church.