Today, my name is Jezebel.

Caught the "other" Peanuts Christmas special last night for the second time this season. This is not the famous "pathetic tree - Linus as St. Luke" one (i.e. A Charlie Brown Christmas), but the one that came decades later, which consists of little vignettes taken from orginal Christmas-themed comic strips.

My favorite one is about the little girl who changes her name every day, confounding Linus.

"Today," she says, "My name is Jezebel."

Linus explains to her that Jezebel was the evil wife of King Ahab in 2nd Kings in the Old Testament, and that her servants threw her from a window and she landed on her head. (He doesn't mentioned that dogs ate her up, though. I think his point had been driven home before he had to continue.)

The girl replies, "Today, my name is Susan."

As soon as she sees that she has identified herself with an unseemly person, she "converts" without thought.

I think it is important to identify with all people in the bible. We're quick to see characters in black and white terms - Solomon, good, Nebuchadnezzer, bad. Noah, good, Goliath, bad. If we identify with any character, it is usually the idealized "good" one, not the fully realized "semi-good" one and never the stereotypical "bad" ones.

But we miss our own sins that way. If we only identify with Job when we are suffering, we miss both the hazards of his slow-burning impatience with God's justice AND the riches of his redemption. If we don't stand in the shoes of Balaam, we miss how God's Word thwarts attempts to twist itself.

Our eyes can be clouded from any righteousness which may be credited to us if we only identify with sanitized models of real people.

I am Goliath of Gath. I am Jeroboam. I am Jonah. I am Pharoah. I am Saul.

And today, my name is Jezebel.