Hanscom - Tuck Everlasting

In the film Tuck Everlasting, we watch the life of a young girl named Winnie who is unsatisfied with her life at home. Although her family is very proper, wealthy and educated, Winnie doesn't find comfort in those things. She decides to journey off into the woods surrounding her family's home when she stumbles across the Tuck family. The Tucks are a close knit family with a closely held secret. They are all immortal beings after drinking from a spring that was actually the fountain of youth. Winnie falls in love with the 17 year old boy, Jesse, who shares the same feelings for her. Terrified of death, she is left with the decision of whether to also drink from the spring of eternal life to be with Jesse forever.

In the end, Winnie decides that she will not drink from the spring and become immortal. She realizes that she shouldn't fear death, but she should fear a life unlived. I really loved the message of this film, because it speaks to this fear that any human has: fear of death. We don't have to fear death because death itself is inevitable. We should be more fearful of living a life worthy of the called that God has set before us.

The water symbolism also reminds me of the words that Jesus spoke about the living water: "But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:14, NIV). As a Christian, we don't have to fear death because Christ has promised us eternal life.

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