It’s true. Billboards reflect the human heart. Sometimes a billboard tells you that you need an oil change or perhaps a different cell carrier. The human heart factor? Making money. And I guess that’s okay in the right doses. I saw a billboard that spoke against abortion — human heart factor = pro life. We see the human heart on billboards. It’s a great way to get a sense of at least some cultural values.
Remember that billboards cost money, too. Reflections of the human heart don’t get put up on a huge flat surface for cheap. Someone believed that the message in their heart was worth the investment to make it known.

But this billboard says something that is getting national attention:


It says “You KNOW it’s a Myth” and is paid for by the American Atheists, placed just outside the Lincoln Tunnel in New York. The employ of the Papyrus font combined with the silhouettes makes it look almost like Christmas, except for the message, which also says “This Season, Celebrate REASON”.

Some Christians will get very upset by this. Perhaps someone will launch an anti-campaign and try to lease the opposite billboard. Someone might try to burn it in the name of religion. Parents might tell their kids to look the other way. And the media will cover the responses with great delight — the more zealous, the better.

I don’t get upset by this billboard. At all. I don’t agree with it and I’m not glad that it’s there. But I don’t freak out when a reflection of the human heart hits the surface. What else should we expect? Sometimes we get mad that a factory makes junk, so we picket the junk but don’t do anything to address the factory. And we also forget that we, too, are the junk factory, in that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The grace and mercy of Jesus is the only way to fix the problem, which is always found in the human heart. When Christians get mad, it’s often for the wrong reason, which only makes us look more heartless and disconnected.

Don’t get mad that the billboard is there and please don’t launch a thoughtful line of tee shirts as a rebuttal. Ask God to break your heart for broken hearts and let a billboard like this, which slaps Christmas in the face, act as a prompt to live missionally so that we can get some better billboards.