Something else you might not know about me is that Jessie from the Toy Story movies is one of my favorite characters of all times. I *almost* convinced my community group at church to do a Toy Story group costume for Halloween this year. (The four-year-old in our group won out, and we dressed up as a train instead. No one is complaining.)
For years now, my dad has rummaged through his stack of Pixar-related postcards and picked out the ones with concept art of Jessie to send me when he forwards me mail. On the back, there are notes like: “Here’s your XYZ docs! They mailed them to Dallas instead of California.” This one is up in my office. Others are framed around my apartment. People will stop to look at her and say something like, “She looks so familiar! Where is this from?” Without her cowgirl hat, it takes folks a minute.
I began seeing Jessie’s Toy Story 2 character arc in a whole new light recently when I reflected on the Ascension of Christ (Acts 1) for a Sunday lesson I taught to our church’s kids ministry. Hang with me:
The scene that has always gotten to me is the scene where Woody is asking Jessie to let go of the airplane about to take off for Tokyo as it races down the runway. She is so afraid of going back into a dark storage box that she would rather spend her life at a museum in Japan than face the risk of losing the love of another child (Andy) after she lost the love of her first child (Emily), who grew up. Woody is offering her a new life she cannot imagine yet in Andy’s room. She clings to the plane until the very last second. When you read the passage about the Ascension of Christ in Acts 1, Jesus is asking the disciples to let go of their vision of how the Kingdom will come: “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?” the disciples ask him. “The Father sets those dates,” Jesus replies, “and they are not for you to know. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere . . .”
Like Jessie, the disciples have a singular vision of what will save them, and they need grace to turn their eyes to the new vision set before them in the person of Jesus. Thankfully, Holy Spirit is on the way.
I can look down my nose at the disciples way too quickly here. The sticky human power structures that require us to play by the rules of jealousy, greed, and self-protection are really all that we know in the absence of full and perfect unity with God. They’re as foundational to what we assume of the world as the law of gravity… until the living presence of God in Christ change everything, that is. Only encountering the living person of Jesus every day, everywhere, can begin to change our core beliefs and open us to trust what Jesus says is true about us, about Him, and about the Kingdom of God.
Obedience leads to knowing and trusting God’s character. Knowing and trusting God’s character leads to obedience. I love Jessie for her courage.
Take heart. Take His hand.
Grace