The whole Christmas situation is muddled these days, what with Santa in his sleigh putting the squeeze on the baby Jesus in the manger. And Happy Holidays is becoming a more PC greeting than Merry Christmas. So should I take it a step further and claim that Jesus loves reindeer? As George Costanza in Seinfeld used to say, world's collide!
You're correct that there are no reindeer in the bible, unless two-by-two into the ark counts as a reference. There were no reindeer in the gospel infancy narratives, but there are no other animals there either, even though we like to insert them in the story.
But if God is the creator of all that lives and breathes, and Jesus is God Incarnate, then surely Jesus loves reindeer! It is not a big stretch to say that woodland caribou are our Canadian reindeer, or at least relatives. And these caribou are disappearing because of shrinking and changing habitat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbRD92aQhk The northern caribou herds are very susceptible to climate change and are disappearing rapidly. All this was reported recently but it didn't get a lot of attention, what with Miley Cyrus changing her eyebrows and all. After all, species come and go, but celebrity eyebrows are eternal.
You may be thinking that there are bigger issues out there than the survival of a species you have likely never seen. I feel that we are all diminished by the disappearance of a species, even one which aren't on my radar, on Christmas Eve or any time . There are far too many "going down in history" and we humans can make a difference. Jesus would approve and our active awareness would be a nice Christmas gift to the planet, don't you think?
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