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I was watching the kids movie Elmo In Grouchland with my three year old son the other day and was blown away by one of the songs in it. For those of you without kids… the movie follows Sesame Street’s cute little red monster Elmo as he travels to Grouchland to find his missing blankie. On his journey he meets all kinds of weird and wonderful characters and visits some places far removed from his home on Sesame Street including a junkyard. And it’s here that the song in question is sung.

The reality is I’ve seen this move quite a few times as I have three kids ranging from three to fourteen years of age and each one of them has watched it tens of times. And I have never noticed this song until now. In this scene in the movie Elmo travels to a junkyard in his quest to find his blankie and encounters the Queen of Trash (played by Vanessa Williams) a character who sees beauty where others see trash. As I sat there with my three year old son watching this movie for the umpteenth time I was suddenly awakened to a deep meaning in the song I See A Kingdom sung by the Queen of Trash in the movie. The song’s lyrics are as follows:

Listen up ´cause this is all I have to say
This could be the thing to get you on your way
Just imagine what is old and new again
Maybe then you´ll understand

Take a look around and tell me that you don´t see
Just a worthless pile of garbage and debris
I see a kingdom – Shining bright
I can see the colors coming through,
You´ll find the beauty, if you look at something right
It´s all about your point of view
And life is all about your point of view

Everywhere you look a story can be told
And the tales they tell are worth their weight in gold
In a place that´s filled with mountains made of trash
Rotting castaways and broken bits of glass

I dare you
Take a look around and tell me that you don´t see
Just a worthless pile of garbage and debris
Cause I see a kingdom – Shining bright
And if you try then you can see it too, yeah
You´ll see the beauty, if you look at something right
It´s all about your point of view
And life is all about your point of view

Maybe it’s just me but I found profound meaning in the lyrics of this song. I’d never seen it before but I personally don’t think it’s that much of a leap to view this song as a metaphor for the Christian worldview.

This about this, how many times do we, as a society, think of people as trash? We live in a throwaway society where we think nothing about throwing away things that are broken or outdated. And although we’d like to think of ourselves as caring people we all too often look down upon the castoff’s of society – the street people, prostitutes, drug and alcohol addicts, convicts, and pretty much anyone who doesn’t fit our idea of who a good, decent, and valuable member of society looks like.

I think we’re all guilty at times of looking at the world around us and thinking that it’s nothing more than a huge junkyard filled with trash. We see the disenchanted, dejected, and downcast, and we write them off with a wave of our hand. And yet, Jesus saw these very same people and saw people of value and worth, people who he wanted to be part of His Kingdom.

In Revelation 7:9 we read, “I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” Notice one thing there is no distinction made as who these people are. It doesn’t say that the great multitude was made up of good looking and nice smelling people, or that this multitude is only made up of the church going crowd. It makes no distinction because all people are valuable and of incredible worth to God. If in doubt about this then read John 3:16 again – “For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.” (Bible in Basic English)

So maybe instead of seeing hippies, commies, lefties, righties, homos, bums, druggies, alkies, and any other person that we can label with a derogatory term maybe we should, like God (and like the Queen of Trash) try and see a Kingdom.

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
August, 2009

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