Aladdin's Genie & God, Introduction

Question: Who is God?  What is He like and what are some of His characteristics?

“It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it.” - John Taylor

God truly is great and loving but at certain times, He can be quite mysterious.  What I want to do is to unfold the "mystery of God and His greatness" so that even a child can understand it and remember it.  To help me in this task, I am going to borrow Genie from the Disney movie Aladdin.

Yall remember him, right?

Of course!  How could we forget when Aladdin was sent down into the Cave of Wonders by Jafar to retrieve a mysterious lamp?  Then, after being whirled away to safety by a magic carpet once finding it, Aladdin rubbed the lamp and out emerged a big blue Genie.  As he would do for Aladdin, and anyone who rubbed his lamp, he would grant them three wishes of their choice.

"Oi! Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck." - Genie

Though you may not have known it, Genie can actually teach us a lot about the characteristics of God through a comparison of how he is like God and how he isn't - simply, their similarities and differences.  So just sit back and enjoy the ride to a whole new world as you develop stronger faith in who God is.

"Aladdin: Provisos? You mean limitations? On wishes? Huh. Some all-powerful Genie. Can't even bring people back from the dead. I don't know, Abu. He probably can't even get us out of this cave. Looks like we're gonna have to find a way outta here.

"Genie: Excuse me? Are you lookin' at me? Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up? Did you bring me here? And all of a sudden you're walking out on me? I don't think so, not right now. You're getting your wishes, so SIT DOWN!" 

Aladdin's Genie & God, Similarity #1


Aladdin's Genie & God, Similarities #2-3


Aladdin's Genie & God, Difference #1


Aladdin's Genie & God, Difference #2-4