By Daniel Emory Price
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say: “Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
Then how all the reindeer loved him, as they shouted out with glee: “Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer, you’ll go down in history!”
We all love a good story when the underdog comes out on top. We love Rocky winning the title round, Hoosiers taking the championship, Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star, and yes, even Rudolph guiding Santa’s sleigh in the fog. And Rudolph gets the added bonus of having the object of his ridicule turn into the only hope for his haters. And man—we love that.
We love it because we’re all theologians of glory. It’s a tough default theological position to fight. How dare those other reindeer laugh at poor Rudolph! How dare they not let him join in their games! What happened to Santa? Why does he allow this bullying? Rudolph could really use some of that legalistic, naughty or nice, reward or punishment ethic dumped on Dancer and Prancer for a change.
H/T Chris Rosebrough