There is a delightfully fun new Christmas movie out called “Red One.”

Now, it’s not in the vein of Christmas movies of old. No Jimmy Stewart or Red Ryder BB guns.

But it’s a cute premise: Santa (or “Red One”) gets kidnapped and his elf security team — think Secret Service agents — need to get him back. And it stars the modern day movie star Dwayne Johnson.

It’s worth a look if you have young children around this Christmas, but there’s also a message there for us adults too.

Prior to Santa’s kidnapping, the lead elf security commander, Callum Drift played by Johnson, was handing in his resignation because he was tired of all the ill-acting adults in the world. He tells Santa that the “Naughty List” is up 22 percent year over year and now is bigger than the “Nice List,” and the adults don’t even care

He admits he feels discouraged and defeated by the world.

But Santa retorts: “If nothing matters to them, it seems to me they need us now more than ever.”

Faithful friends, this is where my faith lens hijacks the movie!

I know there are many of us who feel troubled by what we see playing out daily in a divisive world, especially in our own backyard. And thus Santa’s message should be a rallying cry to all of us.

Santa tells his security commander that we can’t actually change other people; they can only do it themselves: “We just show ’em that we believe in ’em. All of ’em. ‘Cause we know who they really are, down deep. We know that somewhere inside every lost grown-up is the kid they once were. Our gift is that we can see that, even when they can’t.”

Friends, that’s also all we can do as faithful people: Show others that we believe in them. All of them. That we know that somewhere inside every lost grown up is the beloved child of God that they were born to be. It is our gift as faithful people to see that, even when they can’t.

I see a lot of hand wringing among faithful people over the state of things. And it would be easy to get discouraged and feel defeated, just like Callum Drift.

But in Santa’s words, what the world needs now more than ever is faithful people willing to see each person as the beloved child of God they are.

My prayer for you this Christmas season is that you are inspired by Christ’s ability to do the same, and recognize that that is our super power: to see Christ in others. … And it gives us the power to change the world.

Give “Red One” a try. After all, it’s OK to shake up the Christmas movie pantheon every once in a while. Amen.

— Devlyn Brooks is the interim CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.