I wasn’t raised on the Veggie Tales, but when the godly vegetables made their debut, somehow I was hooked. I showed them to the youth group kids I was working with and my fiancé and I watched them and sang their songs all the time! When we had kids, we owned all the videos and we sang all the songs.
True Confession: when we travel as a family, we still belt out the Veggie Tales Greatest Hits and I personally need the reminder that God is bigger than the boogeyman, especially the regular boogeymen and boogey women I encounter in my adult life. God is always bigger. Thanks Veggies.
Recently I came across this article about Phil Vischer and his mom. It shares how she had a strong influence on the show and guided Vischer to never portray Jesus or New Testament stories in vegetable form.
https://lifewayresearch.com/2018/12/07/25-interesting-things-you-never-knew-about-veggietales/
How have I been watching this show for 20 years and never have noticed this? Mind blown.
Vischer shares a little bit of remorse about never teaching kids about Christ. Though my years of Veggie Tales obsession are invaluable to me — I know the Daniel story so well because of these songs, (after all, they put cheeseballs in each other’s ears! My version of the Bible left out that part.), I still find the value in teaching kids about the love of God and the foundations of our faith in any form necessary and I lament that younger generations seem to know neither “Jesus loves me” nor “God is bigger than the boogeyman.” Ultimately, neither of these songs matter. Vischer is right, what matters is if we teach kids about Jesus. If we model our own behavior of rejoicing in forgiveness and holding fast to a capital T truth in hard times, these things change us and will impact our communities.
It doesn’t matter if we have it figured out in a perfect package, but it does matter if we share with others that somehow, someway, the love of Christ changes our lives.
