“Please Make Pokémon Real”
There is something tender and sacred about a child’s bedtime prayer. “Now I lay me down to sleep…” was part of my childhood nighttime routine.
More recently I was present when a young lad concluded his ritual “Bless Mommy and Daddy and brother…and please make Pokémon real.”
I smiled at this unusual request. When I heard it again the next evening, it set me to wondering. Why is this such an important ask of the Almighty for this child?
On one hand, the strong desire in the human heart for fantasy to become reality is readily observable. Little kids are enamored with fairytale princesses and superheroes. Some of Hollywood’s top-drawing movies feature fantasy and fiction, and they aren’t all marketed to children.
Most of us are happy to escape into a story that posits a better world. But how do we prepare our kids for life in the real world with its attendant faults, fears, and failures?
Perhaps we begin with recognizing the ramifications of not dealing with reality. What happens when a child learns Pokémon cannot be made real? That the superheroes on the screen are not showing up to save us? From whence does our help come?
Most people recover quite well from the childhood trauma of discovering the truth behind Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy. The extent of disillusionment likely is proportional to the strength and duration of the fiction and how and by whom the truth is revealed.
When doubts of the trustworthiness of adults arise in one area, how is credibility affected overall? If so many stories of my childhood are fictitious, does that include what I was taught in Sunday School?
Those self-doubts will be magnified in a wider culture that questions biblical truths and values. How well-prepared are our kids to deal with attacks against the historicity and accuracy of Scripture – particularly in the mouth of a respected authority figure?
How will our kids respond when an instructor sneeringly asks, “Do you really believe…
“There is an invisible superpower that created the world in six days – out of nothing?”
“A snake tricked our mythical ‘first parents’ into eating an apple?”
“God killed everyone alive except eight people with a global flood?”
“A fish swallowed a man who lived in its belly for three days?”
“Angels and demons are actual spirit beings?”
“The gruesome death of a Jewish man from an obscure village two thousand years ago somehow can affect your eternal destiny?”
It used to be we were concerned for how our kids beginning college would handle scoffing professors. Now the attacks against scriptural truth and godly virtue have moved down to the elementary school level and perhaps into the house next door.
In the home, the first line of defense is integrity of life. “Do as I say not as I do” has never been a model to follow. No parent is perfect. But when we fail, we can model repentance while upholding biblical standards. When “Love God, love others” is the observed practice in a parent’s life, it strengthens a child’s reasons to believe what the parent is teaching accords with reality.
The truth of God’s Word remains the firm foundation on which a life can be built. The Apostle Peter reminds believers in the first century, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses[1] of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).
To reinforce that the gospel narrative is not fiction, Peter briefly recounts being present at the transfiguration of Jesus. “For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’ – and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:17-18).
Though scoffers will deny the divine inspiration of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16), the gospel remains “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ is but one example of an intellectual’s attempt to debunk the Bible that resulted in the salvation of the skeptic.
How well prepared are our kids “to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15)?[2] It is instructive to note this exhortation is preceded by “sanctify Messiah as Lord in your hearts.” Even before filling our kids’ heads with knowledge, we want to be sure their hearts are surrendered in saving faith to the Lord Jesus.
In a world of competing truth claims, often couched in terms like “science debunks the Bible,” we do well to expose our kids to bright minds who practice rigorous disciplines while holding a high view of Scripture.
James Tour, a Jewish believer in Jesus, taught biochemistry at Rice University and is a leader in nanotechnology innovation. His lectures on the physical impossibility to create life from nonlife are an example of wedding a biblical worldview with scientific excellence.[3]
We do well to recognize that “exclusive truth claims” themselves are increasingly deemed distasteful in our relativistic world. The path from Hegel’s dialectic through Derrida’s deconstructionism to today’s “everyone is entitled to their own truth” may not be a straight line – but here we are. The challenge for us as believers is to hold God’s truth tightly and with humility as we seek to speak truth in love.
What a blessing to be able to tell a child who wholeheartedly wishes for Pokémon to be real that there is a truly fantastic AND true story. It features a real superhero with the power to redeem the sinner and remake this broken world.
Our hero’s name is Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the righteous Son of God and soon-to-return Deliverer. His kingdom of righteousness and peace awaits! At present He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother – or any illusory Pokémon. “May Your kingdom come!”
Wes Taber, LIFE Global Ambassador
What “But I thought it was true” disillusionments have you had to come to terms with over the years?
Where are you experiencing the greatest attacks on your faith today?
How are you helping those in your circle of influence (children or adults) navigate “true truth” and “relative truth?”
Endnotes:
[1] The Apostle John states, “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; also, 1 John 1:1-3). Luke describes the sources for his Gospel as an account “handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:2).
[2] Our word “apologetics” comes from the Greek word here translated “make a defense.”
[3] For a “taste” of Dr. Tour’s thoughtful approach to faith and science, check out https://lifeinmessiah.org/thetovpodcast/evidence-of-god-1 or see https://www.jmtour.com/personal-topics/evolution-creation/. Another helpful scientific apologist is Dr. Jonathan Safarti; The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Refuting Dawkins on Evolution affords a broad range of answers to key questions.