Take It From The Dragons

I promise I do not think constantly about movies during family devotions. Just remember that fact.

I don’t know about anyone else here, but I love How to Train Your Dragon. The characters, the story, the visuals, the soundtrack. It was one of the first movies a friend loaned us in a quarantine survival package last year, and I immediately got lost in the story. Still do.

Back to family devotions. But they say to love God with all your mind, and well, my mind thinks about stories. A lot.

So we read 1 Corinthians 1:26-28.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”

And my brain went, “It’s just like How to Train Your Dragon!”

Alright, I’ll explain. Spoilers abound for the movie, though, so tread carefully!

How to Train Your Dragon opens with an intense dragon battle. Dragons spitting fire everywhere, Vikings swinging war hammers, and a whole lot of shouting.

And in the thick of it is a teenage Viking named Hiccup, sticking out like the hidden object on a “What doesn’t belong?” activity page. All he wants is to kill a dragon and impress his father, Stoick, who also happens to be the village chief. And if he could impress his pretty blond classmate, Astrid, who’s working the fire brigade over there, he wouldn’t be mad about that, either.

Only one problem--nothing about Hiccup is wired to kill a dragon. He's lucky to get from point a to point b without tripping over his own feet. Which is why he's kept hidden away in the blacksmith shop more often than not.

Wonder of wonders, Hiccup manages to trap a dragon with his (not so) trusty homemade net-slinging invention. Not only does he catch a dragon, but he catches a Night Fury, the rarest of all dragons. He also gets chased by a dragon, has to have his dad save him, and burns half the village down.

But does anyone believe him? Nope. Because, well, Hiccup’s tried this sort of thing before. With little success.

So the only logical thing for Hiccup to do is to find his dragon himself and kill it. Then those other Vikings will have no choice but to believe him and accept him as one of them.

Sure enough, he finds his dragon. He rips out his knife and holds it over the beast’s heart.

But then, well, the big, black scaly dragon opens it eyes, looks at him, and whimpers.

And then . . . Hiccup just can’t kill it.

For some reason, he follows the dragon. And then he comes back again. And then he comes back again with fish. And then he comes back again with a new tail fin—after all, he was the one who shot the poor guy down, it's the least he could do. And then he comes back with a saddle.

He dubs the beast Toothless, and the two get to understanding each other quite well. In fact, what Toothless teaches Hiccup about dragons makes Hiccup quite popular in dragon fighting class as well. Even Astrid has to admit it’s pretty cool.

There is, however, that pesky problem of Hiccup having to kill a dragon for his final test in class.

Or does he? I mean, if he could just train the dragon instead . . .

Dad, however, is not impressed when Hiccup tries out his new found dragon training skills in the arena during his test. And he’s definitely not impressed when his new pal comes to save Hiccup when his attempts fall flat. In fact, the only idea he can conceive for what to do with Toothless is to use him to find the dragon nest and destroy it (which Stoick is a little obsessed with). “You’re not a Viking,” he says. “You’re not my son.”

And as Hiccup watches the ships sail away—taking both his dad and Toothless with them—he wonders, “Why couldn’t I have killed that dragon when I found it in the woods?”

“The rest of us would have done it,” ever-helpful Astrid points out. “So why didn’t you?”

To everyone else, the idea of training dragons was foolish. After all, it’d never been done.

To everyone else, Hiccup seemed weak—fumbling everything and barely able to lift an axe.

Even to himself, Hiccup didn’t seem noble. All he wanted was to be like everyone else.

But he wasn’t like everyone else. As Astrid pointed out, he was the first Viking to ever ride a dragon. The first Viking to even try.

The first to throw down his helmet, toss aside his knife, and reach his hand out to a dragon.

And if he hadn’t, if he’d gone on trying to be everyone else, he never would have saved his village from a threat they couldn’t even imagine yet. He never would have changed centuries’ worth of thinking.

He would have never become who he was meant to be.

You may feel weak, foolish, or less than noble. But take it from the dragons—if so, you might just be who God has in mind to change the world.

See? Just like How to Train Your Dragon.

*Have you seen How to Train Your Dragon? What did you think? Share your adventures in the comments!*

So, yeah, I have way too many How to Train Your Dragon graphics that I like. So I just chose two for your enjoyment.