Oops, Wrong Hat

Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.
Rocky: Again?
Bullwinkle: Presto!
Lion: ROAR!!!
Bullwinkle: Oops, wrong hat.

Why Is This One Of The Most Profound Analogies Ever?

As you know my lot in life is to observe and comment on life’s absurdities. Mostly I find them simply humorous.  But sometimes they are so profound in their simplicity or obviousness that they are deeply sobering.

As a child I simply laughed at Rocky & Bullwinkle.  Now as an inquiring adult I find some of the humor and insight of Jay Ward to be on par with the parables of the Bible. Before you think of me a heretic, let me draw an analogy to explain myself.

God (Jesus) used stories and verbal illustrations to teach the principles of life to us because He knew that the lessons learned best are the ones we “get” for ourselves.  God knows that to spoon-feed us knowledge is as wasted as trying to get an infant to eat strained peas.  The best way to get us to eat what is good for us is to make it taste like honey.

Jay Ward used Rocky & Bullwinkle as honey to make the peas of life taste better.  That is the only comparison I am making between God and Bullwinkle.  See how it all tastes better now? 

Back to the most profound analogy of Bullwinkle trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat only to pull out a lion and exclaim, “Oops, wrong hat”.  Do you get it?  If so, what do you get?

I won’t try to spoon-feed you the universal truth I finally gleaned out of this innocuous cartoon. Jesus knew that the best way to answer a question was with another question.  But He didn’t leave anyone hanging without a clue either.  Most of the time Jesus answered a question by referring to a question or answer His Father revealed to His ancestors of the Old Testament.  Jesus left it up to the questioner to go back and dig up the answer for themselves then come back and share what they personally learned with the group. Since I am not Jesus I won’t try to refer you to any passage of relevance (to me) in God’s Word.  He will guide you to your own.  That is the beauty of the Bible, it is like a multifaceted jewel that when turned into the light refracts a different color to each person turning it.  But, the colors are all still part of the same spectrum of light/truth.

Please let me know what you get out of this life analogy (if anything) and share it with the rest of us.  I got it one way, you may get it another. But the truth of the analogy is so simply universal I bet we all get a version of the same lesson in our own individual color.

By sharing what we get we educate each other by provoking reveal-ation and discussion of the same. I can’t wait to share with you the profound lesson I learned when I stuck my hand into this hat.

NJOYLIF, Rob