It's a Wonderful Life


I watched it tonight.  It's been several years since I was last in the mood to watch George Bailey's story, but I came home a bit early from our family festivities... the effects of a head cold and cough made laying on the couch sound more fun than a White Elephant gift exchange.

I remember when I first 'discovered' George Bailey and the sweet tale of the Bedford Falls Building and Loan. I was in my 20s then.  Much younger, and in many ways, much more idealistic.  Some 30 Christmas seasons later, I have certainly aged, and probably lost a good portion of my youthful idealism...but I've gained many things I didn't have in my younger years...

I know now that we do have a wonderful life.  Even if we can touch just one person.  If I can look back on my life and know that I have made a difference...I have loved someone...intervened to help them...just one touch in one person's life...and it can literally change the lives of hundreds, and even thousands of others.

When I was in my 20s, I had a picture in my mind's eye of what my life would look like...who I would marry, how many children I would have...and how my children would grow up to look and be like me.  I haven't ever married, and I haven't ever had any children, but maybe my idea of how I would impact the world was just totally off.   Tonight I was talking to someone at dinner and just sensed the quiet whisper of God inside me...listen to him.  Love him tonight.

Who this person was doesn't matter to the story I tell.  What matters is that we hear God's voice.  It can be hard to hear sometimes, really hard to hear during the noisy holiday season...but for once, tonight. I did hear.  I thought, "what a small little thing to do..."  To love the person across from me. To make an impact by listening. By caring about the other person's story.

In the story of George, he has the chance to see what life would be like if he had never been born.  Of all the wonderful scenes in the movie, the moment that always speaks to me is the scene with Clarence in front of his younger brother Harry's grave.  If George had never lived, Harry would have died falling into a frozen lake...and if Harry had died, thousands of others would never have been saved.

I believe that someone, somewhere over the course of my life has been a 'Harry.'  A person whose life I have touched, who has then gone on to touch the lives of others.  I will never know on this earth how that worked or who was effected, but if I keep listening to the quiet whisper of God each day, I believe He will use me to touch others too...and because God can do this in me, and in all of us... it really is a wonderful life.

Merry Christmas to you and to all the people that you love.

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