“It’s a Wonderful Life”
Sometimes the answer to our prayer is not exactly what we expected. When George Bailey finds that his small business has misplaced $8,000 he is devastated. It is just one more thing…the “final straw”. This will mean that all he has worked for will be lost and he will most likely go to jail. In his desperation he does something that we do not see in the movies today…he prays. Through tears he offers a simple and sincere prayer to God…a God that he is not sure is listening…”God, I’m not a praying man but, if you are there, I need your help…”
It is a moving moment in the story and we are drawn in because we have all been there. When we come to the end of our rope…the end of our abilities…no where else to turn…we pray. Like George we cry out in childlike faith for help. It is more than a Christmas story…it is the story of our daily lives on this earth. We work and struggle to find joy, meaning, and fulfillment in our own strength and in our own way, but even our best efforts eventually come crashing down and there we are with George Bailey at a bar in Bedford Falls…”Oh God, if you are there, I need your help. I can’t make it on my own. I don’t know what to do.”
This is the human condition. We try and try and try to make it without God and without fail we come up short. We are inadequate. We are way more than $8,000 short and the debt we owe will do more than put us in jail. We are desperate.
The good news in the movie is that God answers George! Of course, it is not by giving him $8,000 dollars. It is by sending a “second class” angel named Clarence to give him a proper perspective. That is not what George expected. He was hoping for a more dramatic answer, but God was interested in providing what he needed rather than what he wanted. For this reason he doesn’t get it and much of the movie is Clarence trying to convince George otherwise.
The Scripture tells us that the first Christmas was received in a similar way. The nation of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah…praying desperately for a Savior, but the answer wasn’t quite what they expected. Instead of a political or military leader to deliver them from the oppression of the Romans God “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He was born in a stable not a palace and, therefore, they did not recognize Him.
“The True Light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.” (John 1:9-11)
Christmas came as an answer to prayer. And…it came the way it did in order to change our perspective of who God is and who we are created to be. So, in all the glitter and lights of the season don’t miss the answer to our prayer who was born that first Christmas in a quiet corner of Bethlehem. Maybe not what we expected but exactly what we needed.
Merry Christmas!