(This is an update version of a previous post)
I love this pic. It's a modified still from Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror classic, Alien. If you're familiar with the film, you may have noticed it has been modified to include the addition of a Thanksgiving turkey and decorations.
And it is these additions which to me, make it the best Thanksgiving image ever.
But how so? I mean what does sci-fi/horror and a human flesh eating alien have to do with the family friendly frolic of Thanksgiving?
Lets set the scene:
The crew of the mining ship Nostromo have just gathered together for a meal to celebrate one of their crew awakening from a coma brought on by a giant crab-like alien attaching itself to his face. It is a short lived celebration, however, as he begins to convulse and a blood soaked, razor-toothed alien erupts violently from his chest.
To the shock and horror of the crew, this newly born baby alien scatters across the table and hides itself in the catacombs of the mining ship.
It's not long before this Xenomorph, as it's called, matures and kills all but one of the Nostromo's crew.
Cool, eh?
Anyway, I agree this is not really the stuff Thanksgiving and holiday images are made of.
Yet this 'Thanksgiving-ized' version of the crew's ill-fated dinner just screams REDEMPTION.
It screams redemption because we know the fate of the crew, yet we see them as friends frozen in a moment of joy and thanksgiving.
We know what happened at their celebratory feast, when the alien first shattered their joy, their fellowship, and their peace.
We know things did not end well.
Yet the added Thanksgiving trimmings give the effect that they have been reunited and brought back to the table that had earlier erupted in chaos.
The same table where the alien had once interrupted their peace... their 'shalom' ...is now the table of their joy.
Reunited, they can give thanks. They can laugh and they can share.
They are gathered around a table where the celebration will never again be interrupted by suffering and chaos.
And what's so cool is that this redemption is something we in the real world can hope for also.
In the book of Isaiah 25:6, 8 we read:
And it is these additions which to me, make it the best Thanksgiving image ever.
But how so? I mean what does sci-fi/horror and a human flesh eating alien have to do with the family friendly frolic of Thanksgiving?
Lets set the scene:
The crew of the mining ship Nostromo have just gathered together for a meal to celebrate one of their crew awakening from a coma brought on by a giant crab-like alien attaching itself to his face. It is a short lived celebration, however, as he begins to convulse and a blood soaked, razor-toothed alien erupts violently from his chest.
To the shock and horror of the crew, this newly born baby alien scatters across the table and hides itself in the catacombs of the mining ship.
It's not long before this Xenomorph, as it's called, matures and kills all but one of the Nostromo's crew.
Cool, eh?
Anyway, I agree this is not really the stuff Thanksgiving and holiday images are made of.
Yet this 'Thanksgiving-ized' version of the crew's ill-fated dinner just screams REDEMPTION.
It screams redemption because we know the fate of the crew, yet we see them as friends frozen in a moment of joy and thanksgiving.
We know what happened at their celebratory feast, when the alien first shattered their joy, their fellowship, and their peace.
We know things did not end well.
Yet the added Thanksgiving trimmings give the effect that they have been reunited and brought back to the table that had earlier erupted in chaos.
The same table where the alien had once interrupted their peace... their 'shalom' ...is now the table of their joy.
Reunited, they can give thanks. They can laugh and they can share.
They are gathered around a table where the celebration will never again be interrupted by suffering and chaos.
And what's so cool is that this redemption is something we in the real world can hope for also.
In the book of Isaiah 25:6, 8 we read:
...the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined...
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Here, in this announcement of good news, we are told God is going to defeat death, end our tears, and remove our shame.
Then, we are going to be reunited over a table of never ending joy and thanksgiving.
This is good news because even though we all experience the ravagings of the evil in the world around us and - if we're honest - the evil existing within us, we are promised that God - and God alone - will reverse the effects of this evil for us.
He will single handedly take on the alien force of death that spread throughout the world because of the willful sin and rebellion of man.
And He will do this because He loves us.
Yet this is the ultimate fulfillment of what He began over 2000 years ago in Christ.
It was then, in Christ, that He took onto Himself the alien power of sin and death.
He "died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3) as the Apostle Paul writes.
Then He rose from the dead, effectively securing the end of the alien's reign of sickness and sorrow over our lives.
In Christ, God himself has given us hope; hope for a feast, a joy and a peace that will not end.
In Christ, we are forgiven of the ravagings we have caused due to the evil in us as well as healed from the effects of the evil around us.
In Christ, we are freely and fully loved and accepted by God through no works of our own. We are fully loved and accepted by God's GRACE ALONE (God's undeserved kindness and love).
Right now we have the gift of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone.
Right now the table is set.
Right now we have been invited to the feast.
But right now we also wait.
We wait for the reunion. We wait for the feast.
As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
Then, we are going to be reunited over a table of never ending joy and thanksgiving.
This is good news because even though we all experience the ravagings of the evil in the world around us and - if we're honest - the evil existing within us, we are promised that God - and God alone - will reverse the effects of this evil for us.
He will single handedly take on the alien force of death that spread throughout the world because of the willful sin and rebellion of man.
And He will do this because He loves us.
Yet this is the ultimate fulfillment of what He began over 2000 years ago in Christ.
It was then, in Christ, that He took onto Himself the alien power of sin and death.
He "died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3) as the Apostle Paul writes.
Then He rose from the dead, effectively securing the end of the alien's reign of sickness and sorrow over our lives.
In Christ, God himself has given us hope; hope for a feast, a joy and a peace that will not end.
In Christ, we are forgiven of the ravagings we have caused due to the evil in us as well as healed from the effects of the evil around us.
In Christ, we are freely and fully loved and accepted by God through no works of our own. We are fully loved and accepted by God's GRACE ALONE (God's undeserved kindness and love).
Right now we have the gift of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone.
Right now the table is set.
Right now we have been invited to the feast.
But right now we also wait.
We wait for the reunion. We wait for the feast.
As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
So until that time, we can give thanks to the God who loved us enough to take on death for us.
We can set the tables of thanksgiving for the God who invited and included us in the celebration.
We can "eat the fat and drink the sweet." (Nehemiah 8:10)
Like the redeemed crew of the fictional Nostromo, we can enjoy a feast of true Thanksgiving.
We can set the tables of thanksgiving for the God who invited and included us in the celebration.
We can "eat the fat and drink the sweet." (Nehemiah 8:10)
Like the redeemed crew of the fictional Nostromo, we can enjoy a feast of true Thanksgiving.