It’s Still a Wonderful Life!
Like millions of Americans I watched the 96th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. Each year I look forward to the holiday pageantry of the parade which has traditionally ushered in the Christmas season. I especially loved seeing the excited and gleeful faces of moms, dads and children whenever the television cameras panned the live audience in front of the Macy’s department store.
The radiant expressions of the children added a magical enchantment to the day as they anxiously awaited the coming of Santa. Even though our culture has changed in many ways, I am heartened that the mystical sense of wonder continues to beat within the hearts of the young.
As I watched the marching bands, dancers and other entertainers on Thanksgiving morning, I munched on carrot sticks, the only healthy thing I ate all day, and glanced at the morning paper during commercial breaks. The headlines told of more mass shootings and murders--in a night club in Colorado, in a Virginia Walmart and a university town in Idaho. I found myself mulling over the tragic and senseless deaths to the point that even though I was looking at the TV, I wasn’t really seeing. The floats, singers and marching bands became moving blurs as I thought of empty chairs around the Thanksgiving tables in so many American homes.
Occasionally I switched to a news channel and listened to reporters share eyewitness accounts of Russian missiles indiscriminately falling on Ukrainian cities, destroying vital infrastructure and killing innocent civilians. Millions of Ukrainian people will spend winter deprived of heat and in many places even drinkable water. As in all wars, the children will suffer the most.
The contrast between Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and what I was reading in the newspaper and hearing in the reports from Ukraine created a kind of cognitive dissonance within me. How could I make peace with my sense of gratitude on this beautiful Thanksgiving Day with the reality of so much violence and death?
On any given day we don’t have to look far to find both good and evil, happiness and grief, life and death. Wherever there are people celebrating, there are always others not far away who are grieving.
One Christmas morning years ago I was called to the hospital just after midnight where one of the members of our congregation was in critical condition. I dressed and drove to the hospital where I met the wife of the critically ill man. We waited together with her children in the ICU for several hours until her husband passed away.
I tried to give words of comfort to the grieving widow and her family as they tried to make sense of their loved one’s death. A son wept softly in the corner of the room where an artificial Christmas tree had been placed. Several other family members were huddled in small groups, consoling each other. Hospital personnel drifted in and out of the room where they offered condolences. After a while the family began to make their way out of the hospital and to the parking lot where they climbed into their cars and headed home. It was still dark.
Dawn was just beginning to break as I drove down the street where I lived. Living room lights were already on in many of the homes I passed, and I could see a few of the children through the open windows gathered around colorfully lit Christmas trees. Although I could not make out what they were doing, I imagined how excited the youngsters must be on Christmas morning, how the laughter and happiness and joy filled all the spaces of their hearts.
Minutes earlier I had been with a family overwhelmed with grief. Now, driving through my neighborhood, the homes seemed alive with Christmas excitement and cheer. I realized more than ever that life is a precious gift, and we would be wise to cherish every moment with those we love.
As I tried to redirect my attention to the Thanksgiving Day Parade, I was filled with both gratitude and grief, joy and sorrow. In this world the opposite emotions seem to be somehow connected—when we experience one, it is only a matter of time before the other one follows.
I could not go to bed on Thanksgiving Day without watching my favorite holiday movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart plays the role of George Bailey, a young man with big dreams who is stuck in a small town, Bedford Falls, where dreams die. When George’s father unexpectedly dies, George must take over the family’s Savings and Loans business, the last thing in the world he wants to do.
The villain in the story is Henry Potter, played by Lionel Barrymore. Potter owns almost everything in the town but the Savings and Loans, which he desperately wants. Potter is only happy when everyone else is miserable.
When George’s uncle loses $8,000 of the Savings and Loans cash reserves, a large sum of money in those days, George can take no more. He believes himself to be a failure and convinces himself that the world would be better without him.
He stands on a bridge and contemplates suicide, but just before he plunges into the icy river an angel, Clarence, jumps in. Clarence hasn’t yet earned his wings and knows that George, given his kindly nature, will rescue him. If Clarence can help George see that his life has immense value, he will not only save George, he will earn his wings as well.
“It’s A Wonderful Life” - Liberty Films, 1946
After George pulls Clarence from the water, the angel gives George his wish by showing him what the world would have been like without him. George is given the unique privilege of seeing the difference he has made, how he has kept Bedford Falls from degenerating into Pottersville, an ugly and vile place controlled by an ugly and vile man, Henry Potter. It’s a Wonderful Life ends with George recognizing that his seemingly insignificant life has made a significant difference in the lives of countless people. And Clarence finally earns his wings.
This Christmas classic provides a parable for life--there will always be evil in the world, but as long as there are George Baileys, people who unselfishly contribute to the good, there will continue to be parades, with excited and happy children, singing and dancing in the streets and joyful times with family and friends. Maybe we can’t rid the world of evil, but we can give thanks for the good.
