Elf, Forrest, and Jesus

A friend on facebook sent me a message about the movie Elf:
She was reading John 8, and it hit her that Buddy was like Jesus...there's more. I'll edit this if she gives permission.

For now, I'll say that I admit I'd never thought of Buddy the Elf as a Christ type, but I was thinking about it, and one of his qualities stood out clearly: He's loving. He's ingenuously, unconditionally, completely loving. The way he responds to a father who abandoned him, a boss and coworkers who are mean to him, and everyone who doesn't understand him -- it's always love.

It reminded me of my first pastor and his wife, who recommended Forrest Gump for the same reason. Jenny couldn't handle that kind of love (maybe she didn't think she deserved it?), but even after she abandons him and comes back, he accepts her fully. Love. My first pastor's wife, Sue, said that maybe the only way a film could get away with showing that kind of radical love was to house it in a mentally challenged person...(or maybe a naive elf?)

A friend of a friend was dying from cancer, and was a bitter person because of things that had happened in a church she belonged to. She told my friend, "I hate God!! Jesus, well -- Jesus is good. But I can't stand God."
I think people always kneejerk respond to this kind of statement with a lesson on the trinity -- I probably did when I heard this story. But I never will again. A person very close to me said this same idea recently. Because I know more about this person, I have more understanding:

They feel like certain things that they've had to endure were allowed by God (they're correct..he had the power to stop all of them, and he didn't). So God allowed her to be hurt.
And Jesus is the one who feels our pain fully...hurts when we do...he can, because he actually knows what it means to be human. So he's the one whose comfort is meaningful.

This person understands the concept of the trinity (as the dying woman probably did)....She's not having a lapse in theology. She's in pain. And one member of the Godhead didn't prevent this pain, and another is trying to comfort her through it. So her statement makes sense to me.

So for right now, I'm trying to think, in addition to the conventional WWJD wisdom: What would Forrest do? What would Buddy do?