What's your favorite Christmas movie?
Miracle on 34th Street?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas?
A Christmas Carol?
Elf?
Bad Santa?
Mine without question is It's a Wonderful Life.
It's the story of an average man who no longer wants to live.
He hasn't lived up to his dreams and finds himself in trouble.
He then gets to find out what life would be like if he never had existed.
Part of the power of the movie for me is how dark it is.
This turned people off when the film came out in 1946.
Most people considered the film a box office failure.
Suicide.
Drinking.
Physical abuse.
Failure.
These are all themes on the surface of the film.
But look deeper and it is a movie about true appreciation for the gift of life and the power of the spirit of the individual.
Partly because the film wasn't successful,
The studio released the rights to the film and it helped this early invention called television in airing films.
This is how it became such a beloved American classic.
How many of you know the story of George Bailey?
It's a made up story,
But it's one of the truest stories I know.
It has been told a couple different ways,
But I'm going to stick with the original in the book by Philip Van Dorn Stern called The Greatest Gift.
George Bailey is a man at the end of his rope.
He's considering throwing himself off a bridge when a mysterious stranger appears.
He shares with the stranger his unhappiness with his life and that he wishes he had never been born.
The stranger's pink cheeks glowed with excitement.
Why,
That's wonderful.
You've solved everything.
I was afraid you were going to give me some trouble,
But now you've got the solution yourself.
You wish you'd never been born,
All right.
Okay,
You haven't.
What do you mean,
George growled?
You haven't been born.
Just that.
You haven't been born.
No one here knows you.
You have no responsibilities,
No job,
No wife,
No children.
Why you haven't even a mother.
You couldn't have,
Of course.
All your troubles are over.
Your wish,
I am happy to say,
Has been granted officially.
The stranger gives George a satchel that is filled with brushes,
And he invites George with the opportunity to present himself as a salesman as he enters back into town.
George finds the bank shut down,
A mother and father that do not know him,
The news that his brother drowned because he was unable to save him.
He gets into his wife's house with the brushes and finds she's married to a different guy.
This sets George off and he begs to be brought back to life.
I've got to get back.
They need me here.
I understand right enough,
The stranger said slowly.
I just wanted to make sure you did.
You had the greatest gift conferred upon you,
The gift of life,
Of being a part of this world and taking a part in it.
You denied that gift.
George reawakens like Scrooge on Christmas morning,
Recognizing the gift of life and celebrating it.
We are told his wife came towards him,
Dressed for going to church and making gestures to silence him.
I've just put the children to bed,
She protested.
Now they'll—but not another word could she get out of her mouth,
For he smothered it with kisses,
And then he dragged her up to the children's room where he violated every tenet of parental behavior by madly embracing his son and his daughter and waking them up thoroughly.
It was not until Mary got him downstairs that he began to be coherent.
I thought I'd lost you.
What's the matter,
Darling?
She asked in bewilderment.
He pulled her down on the sofa and kissed her again.
And then,
Just as he was about to tell her about his queer dream,
His fingers came in contact with something lying on the seat of the sofa.
His voice froze.
He did not even have to pick the thing up,
For he knew what it was,
And he knew that it would have a blue handle and very colored bristles.
It's a beautiful story that in 1946 Frank Capra,
With the help of Jimmy Stewart,
Would help make one of the most beloved films of all time,
It's a Wonderful Life.
And both are built around a central question,
A question that it might be wise to ask ourselves from time to time.
What would life be like if I had never been born?
What would life be like if you had never been born?
How would it feel to live in a world where you never had been?
To be unrecognizable to family,
Your partner,
Your friends?
To realize how people's lives may not have been successful,
Or perhaps not even been at all without your help?
Reflected in this is a key art of spiritual teaching on perspectives from life.
From one point of view,
Our individual lives seem meaningless in the context of all that is taking place in the cosmos.
From a hundred miles high,
We are even smaller than ants.
Who we are is so little in relationship to everything that is,
Has been,
Or will be.
But there is another perspective,
Which is that you are a vital part of the cosmos,
To the souls of your loved ones,
Ancestors,
And future-borns.
You are such an integral piece of the fabric of existence that the world and its meanings could very well cease to exist without your existence.
But in the vast cosmos,
It is hard to reject the miracle of our own existence.
Life is the gift.
Life is my greatest gift.
It's your greatest gift,
Too.
Don't surrender it,
But celebrate it.
Don't neglect it,
Thrive and play in it.
Do not forget it,
Honor it.
And yet,
Don't get too down on yourself when you get down.
What makes George Bailey so great is that he is so relatable.
Even in his sadness,
Frustration,
Not knowing,
And cries for help,
We see the miracle of life and hopefully even have some forgiveness and compassion for ourselves.
Frank Capra,
Who directed It's a Wonderful Life,
Once said,
Someone should keep reminding Mr.
Average Man that he was born free,
Divine,
Strong,
Uncrushable by fate,
Society,
Or hell itself,
And that he is a child of God,
Equal heir to all the bounties of God,
And that goodness is riches,
Kindness is power,
And freedom is glory.
Above all,
Every man is born with an inner capacity to take him as far as his imagination can dream or envision,
Providing he is free to dream and envision.
