Was Jonah's Whale a Hero?

About a month ago we got a postcard in the mail from our Church announcing that on Wednesday October 25th, the Children's Ministry would be having a "Heroes of the Bible Party" for all the kids. All kids are invited to come dressed as their favorite Biblical character for a time of games, treats, and fun. We told Will about it and asked him to tell us what Biblical hero he wanted to be. His first answer was, "God". Good answer, because he picked THE Hero of all of us! But, we figured it would be hard to keep a white beard and wig on him, so we told him to pick another hero. His second choice was "The Whale".

I asked him, "As in Jonah and the whale?" He told me yes, so off we went to figure out what to do for a costume. Marci searched diligently online for a costume and found a few but they were a bit pricey. What she did next will definitely put her up for mom-of-the-year because she went to Walmart, bought two pillow cases, glue, googly eyes, sun visors, foam, and white felt and fashioned the whale costume (tail and all) that you see in the picture. It was a big hit at the party, even though the Children's and Student Ministers thought he was a penguin. The funny thing was that Will seemed to be one of the only biblical characters there. Out of probably two hundred children, I would guess that maybe 10 were anything, even remotely Biblical. In fact, it was a sea of Power Rangers, Disney Princesses, and monsters of all shapes and sizes. It's funny, but Will's Whale was the only "Hero" there. But, is the whale a hero?

If you've been around the Church long enough, you've heard the story of Jonah and the whale. Whether or not it was a whale is up for debate, but it really doesn't matter, God provided it to save Jonah. The story goes that God told Jonah to go preach in Nineveh and Jonah ran the other way, jumped on a ship, and sailed off. God caused a storm and the crew threw Jonah overboard, and:

"The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah..." Jonah Ch 1:17a

When Jonah was floating in the violent waves and fighting for his life, God came through and provided a great fish, or in this case a whale, to be the hero and swallow Jonah so that he would not drown. And better yet, Jonah got to live inside of the whale for three days where he had time to get his heart right with God. And, it gets even better because the whale delivered Jonah to the exact place he needed to be by vomiting him out on the beach so that he could go to Nineveh.

I'd never thought of the whale as being a hero until my little boy wanted to dress like one for the party. Now I see that if the whale hadn't been sent by God, Jonah would have drowned and the people of Nineveh wouldn't have turned from their evil ways. Thanks son for the lesson in "Heros I've never thought of".