Amber stood three feet away from William. She hopped twice on her back leg, pushed off and flipped over, just as she did the flip she whispered a quick prayer, “Lord, please have him catch me.” He caught her all right. He caught her foot in the middle of his chest knocking the air right out of his lungs, and Amber hit the floor hard. “Lord, but I asked You to help him catch me.”
Amber’s Mom’s words flooded back into her mind, “Our Father is not a genie to be rubbed when we need a wish answered. He is our God whom we need to respect and build a relationship with. I love that you are such a wonderful dancer, and that you have the part of Clara in the Nutcracker this year, but Amber remember that Christmas is not about “The Land of Sweets” and Mouse Kings. Do not replace Christ with a magical Nutcracker Prince or a fairy tale land. Dance, but dance not for your honor but for the honor of Jesus.” 
Well, Mom is right, she is always RIGHT. But how can I honor God if I don’t practice and perform at the highest level I possibly can? I know Christmas is about Christ. The Nutcracker is just a fun addition to the holiday season for people. It is beautiful and I love that I get to be a part of something so very special.
Now, back to practice.
Amber jumped back up. She looked at William, “Sorry I kicked you in the stomach. I will watch my feet this time.”
“It’s okay, I should have caught you anyway,” William smiled. “Hope the floor wasn’t too hard.”
Ms. Polly asked the woman running sound to start the music back at the beginning of the pas de deux.
Ms. Polly asked the woman running sound to start the music back at the beginning of the pas de deux.
As she did that, Amber could not get her Mom’s words out of her head, “Don’t replace the Christ of Christmas with a Nutcracker Prince.”
Her music started. She twirled around William, and then lined up for her jump. She counted, then pushed off. This time he caught her leg.
Amber felt dizzy. Why did her head hurt so much? William was holding her, or was that William. She turned her head and was looking into the eyes of, well all she could describe him as was, a prince. He smiled at her and set her perfectly down on her right foot. “That was an excellent jump Amber. I have danced with many ballerinas, and for your age, that was one of the best jumps I have seen. Would you like to continue the dance with me?”
Amber reached up, rubbed her right temple. She lightly shook her head, breathed in a deep breath and took the prince’s extended hand. They finished the pas de deux and waited off stage for the dance of the Snowflakes to begin. Amber realized that this was no longer practice. The auditorium was filled with people, the music quality far better than rehearsal, and she was in full costume. How had she missed all this? The one thing that confused her though was the stage. It did not look as it should for an actual performance. Something was different.
As the Snow Queen tip toed past, Amber caught a glimpse of something, a star maybe, hanging high above the stage. That was a new prop, and it was bright. Brighter than anything she thought Ms. Polly’s studio could afford. The snowflakes lined up in graceful rows and the Nutcracker Prince led her down the middle of them. The white smoke of dry ice filled her nostrils, and as the lights dimmed, the star seemed even brighter.
Amber glanced at the dancer next to her. He was amazing. The grace of his every motion surprised her. He caught her eye, and smiled at her. He whispered, “Are you nervous?”
The quick intake of air she drew in steadied her. “Where am I?”
The quick intake of air she drew in steadied her. “Where am I?”
“You are in the magical world of the Nutcracker of course,” he gently said. Then he excused himself.
Intermission was not long enough for Amber. She looked around at the other dancers. They seemed familiar. There was Alice the girl playing Sugar Plum, Annie, the Arabian Coffee dancer, and Amy, Marzipan, but something was strange. She just couldn’t put her finger on it…and where was William? That was freaking her out.
The prelude to Act II started. Everyone jumped into his or her places. The Nutcracker Prince stood next to her again, holding her hand, preparing her for her walk into the Land of the Sweets. But as the lights came up to reveal the stage, there were no candy canes, no lollipops, no gum drops. In the place of the gingerbread house, stood a type of stable, and the angles that lined her way led to the door of the strange building. The light from the otherworldly star shown upon a feed box. Amber realized that Amy was dressed as a donkey, and Annie as a lamb. They sat next to Alice, dressed not in the tutu of a fairy, but in the ragged clothes of a beggar. She held something small in her left arm, and motioned to Amber and the prince to come onto the stage with her right hand.
The angels spun and knelt as the prince and she walked by. Tears seemed to fill their eyes as they looked at the prince. The music still played the Nutcracker suite, but she could hear in the instruments something new, something she had never heard before…it was as if the clarinets sang on their own, “Glory to God in the Highest and peace on earth, good will toward men.”Amber knew a large crowd was watching her, so she kept performing what she had practiced, even in her shock and confusion. The Nutcracker led her to the beggar character. He reached down and touched the woman’s check. Then knelt and smiled at the bundle in her arms, at the baby she cradled. Amber too bent over. She looked at the child and back at the dancer next to her, their eyes… but she could not stare long. Nutcracker stood and motioned her toward the next scene. This stage was large, larger than any Amber had ever danced on before.
The angels lined the way, a zigzag path leading from the small stable. The angels that once lined the path to the stable seemed to disappear as she and the prince danced over this new path. Their steps were light. He lifted her with such ease, with such grace and set her down with no sound at all. As they both leapt twice, Amber realized that the star followed them across the stage, and stood above a wooden object just in front of her. The prince grabbed her waist, lifted her into the air and sat her down on his knee a few feet away from the dancer, who should have been playing the Sugar Plum Fairy. Once again, she appeared in rags. She stood before the wooden image, which was now clearly a cross. Tears streamed down her checks as she pirouetted around the cross. Her arabesque seemed a bow before the wooden object. She then gracefully fell upon the floor.
The prince lifted Amber to his shoulder. He danced lightly around the cross, as if showing Amber the object from all sides. He placed her lightly on point, and as he did this, he brushed the face of the beggar woman. A tear dropping from his chin onto her hair. She slowly reached up and touched his hand.
The prince then walked to Amber, took her hand, and they ran across the stage as the lights faded. Amber felt something new with the sensation of the prince’s hand in hers. Just right above the palm of his hand, on his wrist, the texture of his skin was different. She gently stroked her fingers against this place on his arm and found she caressed a scar. As, he shifted positions off stage, he moved to her other side and took her right hand into his, she felt the same texture, on this wrist, a mirror copy of the scar on the other arm. How had she missed this before? Where had the scars come from? They weren’t there at the end of the first act.
There was little time to consider her question.
The curtain opened, the star now shown on a cave like structure. A light glowed from behind a type of stone entrance. The prince leapt with her in his arms to the door of the stone cave. On either side, stood angels, with faces bright, tears no longer filling their eyes. Amber and the prince spun around the angels, and a new beggar woman, the one who should have been dressed as Marzipan, ran up to the prince, with pleading in her face. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. She embraced him, and galloped off toward a group of men. She kept pointing back at the cave and the prince. Two of the men raced across the stage. They looked into the tomb, and with wonder in their eyes, they picked up the cloth that lay on a stone ledge inside. Amber finally started to understand, she began to recognize the prince, just as she heard the audience cheer.
The prince lifted her to his shoulder and they waved as they crossed the stage. The lights dimmed, and the star drifted to shine upon a throne. The prince gently placed Amber on point. He ran off stage as she pirouetted to the throne and took a seat on the smaller throne that was next to it. She knew that this show was not about her or how well she danced. It was about the one who is Christmas, who is every fairy tale prince, who is the heart of every story. She sat and waited for his entrance, just as the audience who filled the auditorium waited.
The curtain opened, a male dancer, dressed as a white horse, walked in next to the prince. The prince no longer dressed as the Nutcracker. Now he appeared in all of his glory…dressed 
in white shimmering clothes, trimmed in gold. A crown upon his head and eyes as bright as the star that shown over the whole hall. In his hand, he held a sword, and as he leapt and danced his final dance, all stood up, all applauded wildly. He was not simply the Nutcracker Prince, but instead the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
in white shimmering clothes, trimmed in gold. A crown upon his head and eyes as bright as the star that shown over the whole hall. In his hand, he held a sword, and as he leapt and danced his final dance, all stood up, all applauded wildly. He was not simply the Nutcracker Prince, but instead the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.Amber stared in stunned amazement as He walked up to her, claimed her hand, and her clothes change into white silk as beautiful as the clouds in a clear morning sky. As she started to dance their final pas de deux, she realized that the floor had been transformed into a golden street, that a river ran through the city that the stage has become, and trees now lined either bank, filled with fruit more glorious than any candy found in the Land of Sweets. She danced, and her mother’s words fill her thoughts, “Dance, but dance not for your honor, but for the honor of Jesus.”
She danced now with no thought of her own ability, but with a heart of devotion. She would never again dance for her own honor, but always and forever to bring honor to her Prince.
As the Prince led her back to the thrones, He lifted her and lightly placed her upon her seat. Then He stood in front of His throne, waved at the crowd and took His rightful seat next to her. The Prince turned to her, took her hand, smiled at her, and whispered, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
The lights dropped, the crowd screamed, whistled and cheered for what seemed like hours. The Prince stood once again, waved as the lights came back up and went back down, as the curtain fell.
The darkness filled Amber’s mind. She no longer seemed clear in her thinking. Where had the brightness of the star gone? Where was her Prince? Who was speaking to her? Why did he sound concerned? “Amber, Amber, I am so sorry. Are you all right? Amber, please wake up.”
The fog started to lift from her mind. She recognized the voice that was speaking to her. It was William. She knew how his hands felt on her arms, but she did not want to feel his hands or hear his voice. She wanted to stay with the Prince, but as her eyes fluttered open, she looked into William and Ms. Polly’s faces. Concern filled their eyes. Amber sat up. She rubbed her head with both hands. “What happened? Why am I on the floor? Where did He go? Where is the Prince?”
William and Ms. Polly looked at each other. Ms. Polly cuffed William on the back of the head, “You idiot, how could you catch her leg and let her head hit the floor? Better for you to get kicked in the stomach again than to hurt Amber.”
With those words, Amber understood. It had all been a concussed dream, all been a hope within her heart, all been God speaking to her about her own focus. She had replaced the true Prince of Peace with a wooden Nutcracker, but never again. She would dance each scene as it had played out in her unconscious mind, she would dance with the Prince, and for His honor alone.
As she stood, she thanked William for not catching her correctly, and Ms. Polly decided to cancel the rest of rehearsal and take Amber to the emergency room. As she walked out on William’s arm, she glanced across her shoulder and recognized the form of the Prince sitting upon the makeshift throne that sat at the back of the stage. His words crashed into her throbbing head, “I am always with you, Amber, even to the end of the age.”
And she smiled.
