Speaking of computer animation, it’s been a while since I’ve gone off about how cool Veggie Tales is. We bought the Jonah movie last week, and we’ve been watching all the fun extras on the DVD. We didn’t get around to watching the actual movie until today (of course we did see it in the theater).

But first the extras. By far, the best part is the commentary with Larry and Mr. Lunt. It’s basically just 83 minutes of banter. It has nothing to do with what’s going on in the movie. It’s awesome. There’s also the usual fun stuff like a tour of the Big Idea headquarters, which actually an old Woolworths in a mall. It also includes a preview for an upcoming Veggie Tales video, to be released this summer: The Ballad of Little Joe, a retelling of the story of Joseph starring Larry as Little Joe with his Amazing Technicolor Leather Vest. Quality.

But back to the movie. I remember the story of Jonah being about how we should obey God or else. Or else we’ll get swallowed by a whale. Not very fun. Of course God is kind, so he’ll give us a second chance and have the whale spit us up. So the lesson was we should obey God, because if we don’t something gross will happen to us, and then we’ll have to obey God anyway.

Which isn’t exactly the story of Jonah. The Veggie Tales flick focuses on mercy and compassion. The last chapter of Jonah, which all my Sunday School teachers skipped, is all about how Jonah is a jerk and didn’t want God to have mercy or compassion on Ninevah. The story’s not about how we should obey God or he’ll make a large fish swallow us. That’s not really God’s thing. It’s about freakin’ forgiveness. It’s about giving people a second chance, even when they don’t deserve it. That’s the God I serve.

Sometimes I feel like we really miss God’s boat. It doesn’t seem like God’s so interested in telling us how much we suck. Sure we do, and God lets us know–but that’s not his cup of tea. He’d like to get over that. He’d rather show us grace and mercy than judgment (which isn’t exactly a perfect picture of Christians). Which is where Jesus comes in. God walks around in our skin doling out grace and mercy–not judgment and condemnation. And what really pissed him off? People who thought they were in God’s boat, but really weren’t. We are so Pharisees, and we don’t even know it.

All that from a kid’s movie. Quality.