“Miracle on 34th Street”
“A Christmas Carol”
“Elf”
“The Grinch”
Over the last few days our journey through the movies of Christmas has focused on the “scrooges” of the holiday season. Lessons learned?
- There will always be “scrooges’ and “grinches” in our Christmas celebrations.
- Transformation is possible! There is a hope that comes in the message of the Christmas event that every one…you and me and every “grinch” can be changed.
- No matter how tragic their back story may be. No matter how far they have wandered. No matter how they were abused or mistreated in the past…there is Hope because of the good news of Christmas…the coming of Jesus!
Another essential ingredient to our Christmas movie formula is a hero! This is the person that gives the consistent witness or testimony to the true “spirit of Christmas” to our unbelieving antagonists. For Ebenezer Scrooge it was his nephew Fred and the family of his employee Bob Crachit. For the Grinch it was little Cindy Lou Who and for Doris Walker in “Miracle on 34th Street”, it was Fred Gailey who said things like, “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not too.”
One of the best examples of this is from one of the more recent popular movies titled “Elf”. Buddy is a human raised at the North Pole by Santa’s elves. In the story he goes to New York city to find his biological father (our scrooge in this story) and help get him on the “nice” list. In other words, his goal is to get his dad to believe.
Spoiler alert: Buddy’s innocence and embodiment of the Christmas spirit help melt away his father’s cynical exterior and he, along with much of New York city, become believers in Christmas.
Today I want us to understand that because there will always be “grinches” and unbelieving relatives in our Christmas experience…there also needs to be a hero. Someone that will give the testimony of the true meaning of the holiday. Someone who will bring into the hardened life of many the softening Hope of the messsage! The coming of Jesus into our world was God revealing Himself to His creation. It was a proclamation of His unconditional love that can bring light into every dark place and bring restoration to those who feel the most lost!
You, O Christian believer, are that hero! We are charged to to give witness to the transforming power available to all because of the first Christmas. We are the Cindy Lous. We are the Fred Gaileys. The mantra of Buddy the elf was, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear”. We are the Buddys in our story!
So let us confidently proclaim the truth of the Christmas story for all to hear! The God who created you has come…in the flesh…and has revealed His love for us. It is by His coming (Christmas) and through His work on the cross (Easter) that we can be redeemed!
Go and sing loud today! Merry Christmas!