December 8

Written by Bill Grandi on December 8th, 2020

I had a tradition I observed for years but broke two years ago. Every Thanksgiving Day I watched It’s a Wonderful Life (IWL) and followed it with The Santa Clause (TSC) featuring Tim Allen. I broke it because our local theater showed IWL on the big screen. I would watch TSC but this year with no TV or DVD player I watched neither.

IWL is probably my favorite Christmas movie, although it really isn’t one. Not like TSC or White Christmas. But the setting is Christmas Eve so IWL falls into that category. George Bailey is a local yokel who had dreams of travel but his plans were always thwarted. One desperate night he had come to the end of his rope and he prays, “Dear Father in heaven, I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there, and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope.”  The situation which made him this lost and desperate was not his fault but he took it on as though it was. The story is told that Jimmy Stewart had real tears in his eyes because he felt the loneliness and the brokenness of people.

We live in a broken world.  We could say “sinful” instead of broken and that would be true. But broken adequately describes our world. Things are broken. Yes, they are sinful, but broken just pictures someone at their wit’s end. Broken and cracked but unable to be fixed (or so they think). Not by any man made means for sure. Not by self. Not by a self-help guru.  Our brokenness, our “cracked-ness,” can only be fixed by Jesus. What better time of the year than now to bring hope and life and love to a world looking for it (even though they may not know).

“Father, I’m asking you to mend me and then help me tell others that you are the mender of lives and souls.”

 

2 Comments so far ↓

  1. IWL is one of my all-time favorites, Bill. And you are so right – only Jesus can fix our brokenness.
    Blessings!