A couple days ago I finished The WB + UPN's
Roswell. The complete series. All three seasons. What an awesome ride. The show suffered from a lack of budget, hence the corny cinematography and some low-grade actors, but it was a great journey.
Strange how I never watched it while it was on the air. Strange how as a kid in high school I never understood the appeal of the show. Now that I'm learning to walk in the freedom Christ bled and died for, I'm rediscovering that sense of yearning-for-adventure, that I never fully gave myself to when I was a teen.
Roswell is a part of that journey. I get it now. The appeal of this show. I can identify now with the characters. (Yes, even their sloppy moral compass with their promiscuity. It's simply a picture of unredeemed humanity. Either that, or it's a picture of network suits craving for Nielson's ratings demanding that the show up the ante.)
Sure, in the end, not all the themes that were set up in the pilot got played out in any consistent manner. But there was that initial appeal: the sense that, because these kids are aliens, their lives have a bigger significance beyond their day-to-day high school existence.
As a follower of Christ, who describes Himself as being "not of this world," I live in that reality of knowing that my life has greater significance than just what meets the eye. In fact everyone regardless is part of a larger-than-life drama that began in the Garden of Eden, eons ago.
And this "not of this world" concept is a line that Max Evans, the lead alien echoes in the show:
LIZ
So you're an alien?
MAX
I prefer the term, "not of this earth."
And finally, there's a slim correlation (again, this quickly falls apart after the first couple episodes) between "Max + Liz" and "Christ + His Bride (everyone who believes in Him)".
There's a very poignant scene where Liz makes a supernatural connection with Max and she says, "For the first time I saw myself as he sees me; through his eyes I was beautiful."
"The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3.17
TNIV).
So, to Jesus I more than tip my hat, who at this moment is delicately conducting to a perfect pitch, the orchestra of the universe, in which I am privileged to play my part. (I was first chair tenor sax in band.)
