{"id":4329,"date":"2025-01-08T08:05:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T13:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4329"},"modified":"2025-01-08T08:05:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T13:05:48","slug":"just-because","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/just-because\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Because"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Of the more than 4,300 episodes featured over the years on Sesame Street<\/em>, #1839, which aired on Thanksgiving Day 1983, stands alone.

That show has been identified as one of the ten most influential moments in the history of daytime TV.

During that episode, the Sesame Street<\/em> cast confronted the real-life death of one of its own.

Actor Will Lee, who played Mr. Harold Hooper, was one of the first four human characters in the PBS children\u2019s series.\u00a0Mr. Hooper was the gruff, loveable curmudgeon who ran the local grocery store, and whose name Big Bird often mispronounced.\u00a0

When Lee died of a heart attack in 1982, the show\u2019s writers wrestled with how to explain his absence to their young audience.

They decided not to say that Mr. Hooper had gotten sick and died.\u00a0Nor had he chosen to retire, quit, or move away.\u00a0Nor would they announce that Mr. Hooper\u2019s departure meant he had decided at this time to pursue new vocational opportunities.

They decided to face death head-on.\u00a0

No children\u2019s show had ever attempted this.\u00a0

How do you tell preschoolers about the reality that life comes to an end?\u00a0Sesame Street\u2019s <\/em>writers decided they should stick to three messages:\u00a0Mr. Hooper is dead.\u00a0Mr. Hooper will not be coming back.\u00a0Mr. Hooper will be missed by all.\u00a0

The human characters on the show cried real tears.\u00a0Big Bird, hearing that his friend would not be coming back, became angry.

\u201cWhy does it have to be this way?\u00a0Give me one good reason!\u201d he stormed.\u00a0Gordon answered gently, \u201cBig Bird, it has to be this way\u2026just because.\u201d\u00a0Big Bird was given a line drawing of Mr. Hooper \u2013 the picture is still hanging on the show\u2019s set more than four decades later \u2013 and welcomed the consoling embraces of his Sesame Street <\/em>friends.

The psychologists who were advising the show\u2019s writers strongly advised against using the words just because.\u00a0<\/em>In their opinion, young viewers would need a more concrete answer, not something so open-ended.

The writers, however, decided not to change Gordon\u2019s reply to Big Bird\u2019s difficult question.\u00a0In their view, there is never a good explanation for why people die.

Most observers agree it was a brilliantly written episode.\u00a0It succeeded at its primary goal: confronting the reality of death.

But most of us would agree that all of us need more than just a dose of reality when it comes to facing death.\u00a0We also need reassurance<\/em>.\u00a0

We need reassurance that death doesn\u2019t win.\u00a0That it doesn\u2019t steal everything (and everyone) we\u2019ve ever known and loved.\u00a0That it doesn\u2019t render all of our dreams and experiences meaningless.

If you\u2019re saddled with a crushing debt \u2013 unyielding student loans, a mortgage locked in to punishing rates, a VISA bill that only seems to grow \u2013 it\u2019s hard to stop thinking about it.\u00a0The seeming impossibility of repayment shadows all your waking moments.\u00a0It haunts your dreams.

Death is the ultimate creditor.\u00a0And for every one of us, death is coming to collect.\u00a0It will collect all of our tomorrows.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

Can reassurance in the face of death ever be anything more than just wishful thinking?

Here\u2019s the stunning Christian claim:\u00a0Jesus of Nazareth paid off death<\/em>.\u00a0

The reality is that life in this world doesn\u2019t go on forever.\u00a0Death will find every one of us.\u00a0

But the reassurance for Christ-followers is that death can no longer bankrupt us.\u00a0

Why would God make such a thing possible?\u00a0

Just because<\/em>.

Just because his deepest desire is to share the gift of deep, lasting Life with all who are willing to receive it.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Of the more than 4,300 episodes featured over the years on Sesame Street, #1839, which aired on Thanksgiving Day 1983, stands alone. That show has been identified as one of the ten most influential moments in the history of daytime TV. During that episode, the Sesame Street cast confronted the real-life… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,450],"class_list":["post-4329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assurance","tag-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329","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=4329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4331,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329\/revisions\/4331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}