Ice Breaker – Star Wars

Due to a guest posting opportunity, this week’s Stretched Ice Breaker is moving up a day to Thursday. Tomorrow is May 4th which happens to be my Mom’s birthday – Happy Birthday, Mom! It also happens to be Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you! Get it? In honor of this special occasion, today’s Ice Breaker question will deal with Star Wars. Here goes….

Question: What is your favorite character or thing about Star Wars?

My answer: I saw the very first Star Wars movie (which was just called Star Wars and is now the fourth movie and referred to as A New Hope) in theaters when it first came out in the late 70s. I realize that I am dating myself here, but it helps to set the stage for my answer. I remember being drawn into the story, and I especially liked Luke Skywalker – of course. Over the course of time, I saw the next two movies Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (which are now the fifth and sixth movies). I still liked Luke and I still thought the first (or fourth) movie was the best.

As we all know, George Lucas decided to release three prequels telling the story of Anikan Skywalker and the beginnings of villain, Darth Vader. I strongly disliked Darth Vader in the original movies. After all, he was the villain. My view of Darth Vader changed dramatically when I saw the third movie in the prequel series (Revenge of the Sith). In this movie, Anikan Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. This may seem rather depressing, but it wasn’t for me. This movie provided the connection piece to the Return of the Jedi movie when Darth Vader comes to his senses right before he dies and turns from the dark side of the force. This connection allowed me to see the story of redemption that is told through the six movie series.

You see, I think we all start off innocent like Anikan did in the first movie, but at some point, we all mess up. We may not turn into Darth Vader, but our sin separates us from the life we were meant to live. Our sin can make us pretty ugly. The beautiful thing is that we all have a shot at redemption. I believe that God provided a path to redemption when He sent his Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life and to die for our sins on the cross. I believe that there is redemption for those who chose to believe this and decide to follow Jesus. It may seem crazy, but this is my favorite part of the whole Star Wars thing – the story of redemption.

This is a longer answer than normal, but I couldn’t help it. Now, it’s your turn. Answer the question in the comments. I look forward to reading your responses.