Peace On Earth...and Squirrels...

In order to understand this post your going to have to watch that video. It is about 8 1/2 minutes long but I really think that it is worth the view. :-)

That cartoon was awesome for a lot of reasons. It had talking animals, lots of explosions, and Christmas music. That is an amazing combination. What I love the most is the very serious message it tries to convey in a very...different sort of way...
If you didn't watch it, it was about an old squirrel who is asked by his young grandchildren (also squirrels...) what "men" are. He obliges by describing them as nasty monster soldiers who were always fighting. The whole cartoon is very anti-war...and I love it! Who would have thought that some guy could use animated squirrels to spread peace and love? Especially in the time period that this was made in! This cartoon was produced in 1939, not the 60's when being anti-war was a hippy thing, but right at the beginning of World War Two. Most cartoons you see from this era are "pro-war stop the Nazis and the Japanese from destroying the world" propaganda stuff.
The most hilarious part about this cartoon is that all of the cute little creatures are Christians. Yes. You heard me. As soon as all the men (and women?) on earth destroy themselves, an owl picks up a Bible and read "thou shalt not kill...hmm, it looks like there are a lot of good rules in this book that men didn't follow." Hilarious! Mostly because it's true.
I love the message: War doesn't solve anything. It's true. It doesn't. There is no "war to end all wars". There are only "wars that may end temporarily but will start again somewhere else by someone else". If we look back through history at all of the wars we'll see that they just don't work. There will always be one more war. Miroslav Volf said in his book Exclusion and Embrace that violence is what happens when reason and rationality are ignored or forgotten.
A lot of people use the Bible to support war. But actually I think that if we take a closer look at the Bible we'll find a peaceful message. Take Jesus, for example. Jesus was a lover, not a fighter. There was no hint of violence in him. Now, Jesus is the ultimate and most intimate revelation of God that has ever (and will ever) occur in history.
Shouldn't we follow the same path that God took?
I mean, if we don't, if we fail at what we're supposed to do...the squirrels might have to take things into their own hands...
...or paws...or whatever.