Spend enough time at a preschool playground, and you will eventually hear kids trying to one-up each other. They boast to their friends of being faster, stronger, or able to climb as high as the sky. When these pre-adolescent sparring sessions escalate, they often shift from self-grandiose claims to bragging about their mighty dads. “Oh yeah, well my dad could jump over the monkey bars!” “Mine could do that with your dad on his shoulders!” Take these remarks at face value, and you would conclude that their fathers are qualified candidates to join the Avengers! But those of us with fully developed frontal lobes know that thinking about dad as a superhero is downright silly.
Or is it?
I’mconvincedthattheplaygroundchatterthatmakesdadsoundlikeMr.Incrediblehasrootsinchildhoodimaginationandbiblicalinspiration.Now,I’mnotsuggestingthatdadsarethesuperheroakidneeds.No,thatrolehasbeenclaimedandcompletedbyJesusChrist,whosharedinourhumanitysothat“throughdeathhemightdestroytheonewhohasthepowerofdeath,thatis,thedevil,anddeliverallthosewhothroughfearofdeathweresubjecttolifelongslavery”(Hebrews2:14–1
