I have been watching Grimm lately. The creativity and story telling are excellent and the acting is impressive. I watched it when it originally aired on NBC and decided it was time for another viewing of it.
Inspired by the stories written by the brothers of the same name, Grimm unravels the world of Wessen (w pronounced as a V), people who are not exactly human but look human most of the time. They woge (vogue), or reveal what are normally animalistic qualities such as fur, fangs, scales, extra human strength or smell, and other features. The show follows a detective named Nick Burkhardt as he finds out he is a grimm, a person who can see these Wessens. This takes him into a crazy world of danger, intrigue, and a huge list of creatures he had never imagined. He has a relationship with a wonderful woman named Juliette who eventually starts noticing strange things and has to face this world as well.
The time came to reveal what Nick had learned to Juliette with help form friends, but someone intervened. Adalinde Shade, who is a hexenbeast (basically a witch). She put Juliette into a coma where her memory was eroded away. Fortunately Nick had friends who could help, but it took a long time before Juliette remembered Nick again. Then, after she regained her memory of Nick, she was able to learn about Wessen. Nicks friends Monroe (blutbot which is a werewolf), Rosalee (fuchsbau, whom look rather like a fox when they woge) and Bud (Eisbiber, basically a beaver person) decide as a group to woge in front of her. First Rosalee wogues into her cute fox look. Juliette is shocked and walks out of the building. Each of them starts to panic (or in the case of Bud continues to panic) but she quickly returns, a bit frantic from this new knowledge, but wanting more.
This 5 minute YouTube video shows you her experience.
This whole experience of learning that there are so many creatures around tends to be quite overwhelming. Through the course of the show we see several people go through this process. They often think they are crazy at the beginning of it.
The way the Holy Spirit leads unbelievers to Jesus often has a complicated, sometimes even a disconcerting path, as well. I remember someone who came to a game night one time could feel a spiritual presence in the room. I took this as an opportunity to move the discussion from spirits to her questions about God. I can’t tell you where she is now, but that moment an uncomfortable spiritual presence opened the door for her to take a step toward Jesus simply by asking questions. I found that in her experiences with members of faith (in her case Catholic) they had often refused to listen to her questions and even treated the questioning process as a sin. That is a terrible idea! Questions are part of learning. We can not expect people to grow toward Christ if we don’t encourage them to find good questions and walk with them in those questions.
Jesus’s forms of evangelism included a lot of strange things and a lot of questions. He healed people of leprosy, blindness, and raised the dead. One time he even put mud in a guys eyes! He spent hours speaking to people but also hours listening to their questions and answering them. For an example of him answering questions look at his interaction with Nicodemus in John 3.
Sometimes we present coming to Christ as some crazy immediate event. In most cases, it is a process of many events and for some it is a very long process that includes people praying for them, times of reading, times of reflection, and a variety of events. One friend of mine came to Christ only after a crazy vision of fire in his room not hurting him or burning anything. He also spent time talking with believers and through all of this someone was praying for him. Sometimes it is a winding road where they wander far from Christ and a bit closer than far again and so on. In some Christian circles the processes of evangelism (leading someone to Christ) and discipleship (helping a believer grow in Christ) are not seen as separate processes but the same process.
The world of Grimm has a lot to discover. So does the world of Christendom. From prayer to scripture and small group discussions to large group worship meetings, there will always be more of the Infinite Christ to learn and explore. I remember a Bible professor who had been teaching the Bible at the college level for almost 50 years said he was still finding new things to comprehend from scripture. Do you help young believers explore this world? Or do you inhibit them? Are you patient with unbelievers or do you expect them to instantly know Jesus?
If you are currently in this process of exploring Jesus and still asking questions feel free to message the Nerd Chapel FB page or Instagram account if you would like to ask a question about Jesus or life with Him.