21 December

Today's the day when in 1937 the Walt Disney film Snow White and The Seven Dwarves had its cinema premier. Although it was not the first full-length animated film to be made (an Argentinian film called El Apostol has this honour) Snow White was certainly the first animated film to become widely successful in the English-speaking world. In fact, it remains the tenth highest grossing film in history if you make adjustments for inflation over the years. Disney had many critics during the production of the film who did not believe that a full-length animation would sell. The project became known as 'Disney's Folly' until the film proved tremendously popular at the box-office. Such was its appeal that cinema owners began to demand, 'We want more dwarves.' And so great has been its impact that even today just about everyone knows its classic songs: 'Whistle While You Work' and 'Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off To Work We Go'.

I guess Disney could easily have given up on this project when everyone else was saying it was a foolish idea. But he had a deeper conviction that it was worth investing in. In fact when no one else would finance it he mortgaged his own house to raise the funds he needed. If you follow Jesus you are bound to meet some people who say that you are foolish. But if a deeper conviction burns in your heart that Jesus lived and died for you, then you'll risk everything to follow him. This is what Paul had on his mind when he wrote this in 1 Corinthians:

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.