A Christmas Carol
The Best Christmas Story Ever - 5-Star Masterpiece
How Christmas Was Saved, and So Were We
In the mid 1800s, Christmas was a dying holiday, much as it is today. Many of its traditions were being neglected, and even the idea of "Peace on earth, good will to men" was considered passe. Then something extraordinary happened: Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas." It was an instant success, and launched one of the biggest comebacks in history: not of Dickens, but of Christmas.
The English poet Thomas Hood once wrote, "If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease." That's how powerful a tale it is. And it doesn't take that long to read.
Over the course of my life, I have enjoyed many and sundry versions of A Christmas Carol on screen and stage. But only a few years ago did I finally get around to reading it. To my surprise, it turned out to be a Christian story. I knew it was inspiring, but I never dreamed there were so many references to Christ, because only a few of them have survived in the many dramatic productions. (There have actually been fifty or sixty different film versions of A Christmas Carol made. You can read about most of them on the definitive Christmas Carol web site, http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/christmas-carol/christmas-carol.html.)
The amazing thing about this five-part story, which is one of the shortest in Dickens' career, is that we never tire of seeing or hearing it. We seem enthralled by the idea that Christmas can transform us, if only we'll let it. In A Christmas Carol, we see the Victorian Christmas we have always dreamed of. In the miser Scrooge, we see the best and worst of ourselves. And in the conclusion to the tale, we see the hope that we, similarly, can be transformed by the Spirit of Christmas.
Why Things Aren’t Working: or, The Parable of Bedford Falls
I believe the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, holds the answer to why our nation is in trouble. Almost nothing in America is working right now: not our economic system, not our political system, not our housing system, not our educational system, not our health care system, not our immigration system, not our banking system, not our social system - not even our postal system, which has always been the government agency that worked the best. Nothing in America is working right now, and the reason is pretty simple.
In the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, there are two towns: Bedford Falls and Pottersville. (They're actually the same town, but under different circumstances.) You'll remember that Bedford Falls is the town that George Bailey, the hero, grows up in, and that Pottersville is the town it would have become had George Bailey never been born. It's a dramatic contrast, presented by Heaven to show George that his life really has made a difference. If George is a Christ figure in the movie, which he is, then you could say that we get to see how a town with Christ looks, and then how it would look without Him. If George is also a Christian, trying to love his neighbor as himself, which he is, then you could also say that we get to see the impact that one Christian life can make.
Here's my contention: America, which was once made up of homey little communities like Bedford Falls, is quickly becoming a country of Pottersvilles; and we, who were once a nation of caring citizens like George Bailey, are becoming a nation of Potters.