This last week, a couple of us went to see the new Superman film. Apart from having my brain turned into mush from the crazy amount of special effects it was a really great night out. It’s important to note that the lack of fathering has as big an impact on Krypton as it does on earth. In line with my last post on the speaking of blessing and curses over our kids, is another way to bless and curse, this second way is the presence of a strong man!

In Mark 3:27 we read “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.” This verse comes on the back of the teachers of the law and Jesus’s family accusing him of being able to drive out evil spirits because He is the captain of the evil spirit team, so to speak. Jesus nicely throws this back into their court by pointing out that this would be a dumb plan as a house divided cannot stand. Basically, you can’t win the match by kicking your own teammates in the shins, or worse. At this point he speaks about the strongman and how he must be tied up first. Typically, the strongman represents Satan, but in the context of blessing and cursing, this  strong man can also mean fathers!

So, back to Clark Kent’s life story. It’s an old story, but it really stood out to me how the absence of his father lead to uncertainty, it leads to a sense of being lost with a lack of purpose. It was only when Clark came across the funky space ship trapped in the ice with the holographic version of his dad, that he fully understood his value, his purpose and his identity. Only when his dad appeared, did he begin to understand his uniqueness, only when he saw his Father explaining the gaps in his life did his character change from a shadow that roamed from town to town, to a man who was anchored in his identity and therefore ready to take hold of his destiny. This is what the presence of a Father can do.

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