{"id":2203,"date":"2022-12-09T07:53:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T12:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2203"},"modified":"2022-12-09T07:54:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T12:54:26","slug":"prancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/09\/prancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Prancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>.
 
Throughout the season of Advent \u2013 which this year encompasses the four weeks leading up to December 25 \u2013 we\u2019re looking at classic Christmas movies and how they might connect us to the miracle of God choosing to become a human being.<\/em>
 
Prancer<\/strong>
 
It’s easy to differentiate between adults and children as Christmas approaches.
 
The children are the ones whose hearts are still open to the possibility of mystery.
 
The adults are the ones whose hearts are more likely overwhelmed by weariness:  Is everything going to be ready on time?  Am I finding the right presents this year?  Will the grocery still be open for emergency runs at 3:00 am on December 25?

Prancer<\/em>, which arrived in theaters in 1989, is an unusual Christmas-themed movie about holding on to innocence in a jaded world.  It centers on the relationship between an eight-year-old Michigan farm girl named Jessica Riggs (played by Rebecca Harrell) and her gruff father (Sam Elliott).  Jessie has recently lost her mother.  Her dad loves her deeply.  But, crushed as he is by his own experience of grief, he doesn\u2019t know how to express it. 
 
Coming home from school, Jessie is surprised to encounter an injured reindeer.  She concludes it must be Prancer, one of the reindeer in Santa\u2019s team.  She hides it in the backyard shed, hoping to nurse it back to health in time to fly on December 24.  Her dad, upon discovering the wounded creature, at first grabs his shotgun so he can put it out of its misery. 
 
Nothing can persuade Jessie that she is helping an ordinary reindeer.  She is buoyed by a sense of wonder.  But she\u2019s surrounded by others who seem bent on eradicating it.
 
She talks with a friend, who says she can\u2019t believe in anything she cannot see.
 
\u201cBut what about God?\u201d says Jessie.  \u201cYou can\u2019t see him, either.  Does that mean you don\u2019t believe in him?\u201d  Her friend admits her skepticism.  Jessie replies, \u201cBut if there\u2019s no God, there\u2019s no heaven.  And if there\u2019s no heaven, then what about my mother?\u201d 
 
Without the meaning and assurance that spring from trust in God, life can be hard to endure.  And it will be increasingly harder to sustain an authentic sense of wonder as we grow older. 
 
Years ago I read the account of an author who told the same story to his three children: Sarah (7), Naomi (4), and Nathan (age one).
 
He went into Sarah\u2019s room and said, \u201cLittle Tommy got up, walked to the door, and then opened it.  Suddenly, a dragon jumped out in front of Tommy!\u201d  Sarah remained transfixed until her 7-year-old mind was reassured that Tommy whipped the dragon.
 
Next he narrated the same story to Naomi: \u201cLittle Tommy got up, walked to the door, and\u2026then\u2026he\u2026opened it!\u201d Naomi\u2019s eyes widened as she tingled with the anticipation of what might be waiting behind that door.
 
Finally, he told the same story to little Nathan, a child whose entire worldview could pivot on the word \u201ccookie.\u201d He said, \u201cLittle Tommy got up\u2026and walked\u2026to the door!\u201d  With every word Nathan\u2019s eyes brimmed with excitement.
 
The author pointed out that Sarah needed the dragon to evoke a sense of wonder.  Naomi was moved by the mere gesture of opening a door.  Nathan thought it was a big deal that somebody actually walked.  He concludes, \u201cThe older you get, the more it takes to fill your heart with wonder.  And only God is big enough to do that.\u201d
 
Is your heart spiritually alive this week?  Or does it seem that all the colors of the world have turned to gray?
 
Where once something used to leap up inside you, would a heart monitor now show that your sense of curiosity and hope have flat-lined?
 
Maybe belief in God is like belief in Santa.  It \u201cworks\u201d only until it\u2019s time to grow out of it.  Wonder is for suckers.  Maturity means moving on and accepting the fact that life really doesn\u2019t have a point.
 
Or maybe belief in God makes sense precisely because God has hard-wired spiritual yearning into each of us \u2013 the kind of wonder that still animates Jessie, and prompts her to take risks that would probably never even occur to others.
 
So, is the reindeer under Jessie\u2019s care the real Prancer?  At the risk of spoiling your own sense of wonder, here\u2019s your chance to see how the movie ends: Prancer – Ending (Rebecca Harrell) – YouTube<\/a>
 
Jesus alone can jumpstart our real-life experience of wonder and mystery. Only he is big enough to help a grown-up who has seen it all and done it all realize that the universe is still very much filled with the wonders of his love.

And how in the world might that happen to you this Christmas?

Just ask him. <\/em>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast, click here. Throughout the season of Advent \u2013 which this year encompasses the four weeks leading up to December 25 \u2013 we\u2019re looking at classic Christmas movies and how they might connect us to the miracle of God choosing to become a human being. Prancer It’s easy to differentiate between adults and children as Christmas approaches. The children… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[539,160],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-movies","tag-wonder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2206,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions\/2206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}