For the Moments When You Stop Twinkling - By Adam Paul

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t had a chance to watch the most recent season of My Hero Academia, but intend to and you don’t want spoilers, you may want to stop reading now.

For years there has been suspicion of a traitor within UA. We now know this was, in fact, the case. And the traitor was none other than Mr. Can’t Stop Twinkling himself, Aoyama. To this point little more than a source of awkward comic relief, Aoyama’s betrayal of his fellow classmates hits like an emotional freight train, particularly in understanding all the nuances of what led to it in the first place, which I will not spoil here.

But what hits even harder is the immediate love, grace, and forgiveness the rest of Class 1A show their troubled comrade almost instantaneously. Their willingness to move past the betrayal and still embrace him as their comrade and fellow hero is a display so stunning as to almost come off as unrealistic. Who could ever look past such devastating betrayal so quickly and with such patience and understanding?

I don’t know if you’ve ever been betrayed by someone close to you. It takes many forms and can happen in many contexts, but it always hurts. A lot. The way it manages to hit all of your emotions somehow all at once, and twist good memories into something painful is devastating, not to mention what it can do to your ability to trust others.

How does the Lord handle betrayal? Well, look at Matthew 26 where Judas perpetrates the ultimate betrayal, with a kiss no less. Jesus calmly turns to him and calls him “friend”, and actively stops Peter from fighting back. He is calm, undoubtedly hurt and upset, but takes it in stride, trusting in the God who is going to work all of these horrible, devastating things towards a greater good (see Jesus prayer in Gethsemane right before this scene, and the words of Paul in Rom 8:28). 

Or think of all the times we have betrayed the Lord. All the many times we sin against His good and holy standard every single day. In ways, big and small, we take the good and beautiful gift of life that God gave us and throw it back in His face. How did he respond? He sent His only begotten Son to suffer the full weight of divine justice, the full and complete debt sinful humanity cultivated, borne by God’s own Son on a cross. 

Betrayal hurts, and it hurts deep. But like the students of 1A, like the Lord Himself, we can find a way to show love and mercy in those profound moments of heartache, and find comfort and solace in the arms of a loving God who will turn all things, good or bad, towards the greater good of those who love Him. Just like Aoyama’s betrayal was turned into opportunity in the fight against All for One.

How can you cultivate trust in God so firm that it provides refuge in moments of heartbreak? In those moments, how can you show love and mercy the same as the Lord shows us when we betray him daily?