The rain did not turn to snow in Macon, Ga., this weekend as forecast, much to my younger daughter’s disappointment. But knowing the precipitation in some form was certain, I picked up a DVD of “Fat Albert” on Friday afternoon for wet-weather entertainment.
My family had enjoyed the Bill Cosby movie when it came to theaters a few years back (as I had the TV cartoon version long ago).
Here’s the story: Big-hearted (in fact, big everything) Albert has deep compassion for broken-hearted Doris, a young girl who feels unwanted, unloved and rejected.
To express his love, he leaves the comfort of his heavenly world (in this case, an animated North Philly junkyard) to enter her world — in the flesh — in order to show her love and acceptance.
“I’m going to help her,” Fat Albert said, upon seeing her pain. “I have no choice.”
He has a committed, but at times bumbling, group of followers. Not Peter, James and John, but Bucky, Dumb Donald, Old Weird Harold and Mushmouth.
Not everyone accepts his message of love. Some ridicule Albert and his followers. They are not of this self-centered world.
But his message does mend the broken heart of Doris. Albert assures her: “I’ll be here to cheer you on.”
Hey, hey, hey. Sounds kinda familiar.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
