There is perhaps no toy that teaches tolerance as well as Mr. Potato Head. On the box it states: "Kids easily attach the pieces to the Potato Head body in different ways for hours of face-changing fun!" This porcelain version, with new accessories, enjoys the playfulness of God. More importantly, it displays the inclusive heart of God, where all of our prejudices have no place. Watch young children play with toys--the combinations are spontaneous and endless, each body worthy.
Sure, play can also create irony. Here one can make anything from a proper Junior Leaguer to a cross-dresser. Or even a ridiculously literal onward-Christian-soldier, resplendent in full armor regalia, taken literally out of Ephesians 6:13-17: "Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming dart of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
I once saw a local Vacation Bible School class parading around the neighborhood in armor made of cardboard and foil, swinging toy swords, in training for an oxymoron holy war.
Looking at the array of M. Potato accessories, my young son innocently asked why the breastplate was so small. Only then did I realize that M. Potato Head is only a head. Not much heart to cover. Why then, he asked, did you make just one body? If I'd made two, there'd be a separation of the sexes. Thus, this one’s unisex. The real reason, though, can be found in Romans 12: 4-5: "... Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
Tolerance doesn't go far enough. Children, if they are not otherwise indoctrinated, teach us the inclusive love of God. They’ve got it right.
