As I eluded to in my Half My Age post, 1997 wasn’t a banner year for me. Christmas Eve would change that.
I always had lovely memories of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day from years before but 1997 would be the most special one.
It started with a conversation with a customer of mine who I knew to be a Lutheran. I grew up in a Lutheran church but the idea of a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ was not something that got my attention growing up. So, I asked this customer if this one Lutheran church was having services and what time were they. My customer told me and I said I would see them there.
The service was a beautiful reminder of what Christmas is really all about. The Virgin giving birth to a Son who would save the world by dying for it.
After the service, I went home and the intention was to watch Scrooge with Albert Finney as that was a tradition. I went to get it and sure enough I didn’t have it anymore. So I had to settle for something else.
It’s A Wonderful Life.
We’ve all seen it so I shouldn’t have to explain the plot. But around halfway through the movie I was getting tired and decided to go to bed. A few hours later, I am wide awake. So, I go downstairs to watch the rest of the movie.
By the time the part where George Bailey wished he hadn’t been born and was shown life without him, I started to get very emotional as I realized that I was doing the same thing. I didn’t want to continue with life. I then realized God used the movie to get to me. He put me here for a reason, good, bad or indifferent. I acknowledged Him in my life and decided that I needed to be in a Bible study. I was told of a men’s group that met at the church I went to on Christmas Eve and so I decided to go one night.
These men became Brothers to me. One would be my Paul to my Timothy. They shepherded me and helped me what being a Godly Man was all about. I shed the music, movies, comics and other interests that were dragging me down and submerged myself into Christian music and teaching. I wasn’t in contact with my soon to be ex other than through the lawyers but eventually the divorce was finalized. Only for me to marry again with someone I was online dating and whom I am still married to.
Oh, and about It’s A Wonderful Life.
I haven’t watched it since 1997.
My Music Corner of the World 
I too like the Finney version of A Christmas Carol. It’s simply not well known enough!
I have never actually watched It’s A Wonderful Life, as I always thought it might be a tad too heavy for me.
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I don’t know if I would call It’s a Wonderful Life heavy but I can certainly see why you would say that. I seem to recall a lot of lighthearted moments in the movie.
While I love Finney as Scrooge, I enjoy adaptations that are faithful to the original story. Finney hits the high points but there are other details that I would love to see in more adaptations.
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You sound like you are a true expert on a Christmas Carol! Of course in our family we grw up on the Alistair Sim version, but you know which one I have never seen? Patrick Stewart.
Also there was a Doctor Who version of it, with the amazing Michael Gambon playing the miser named Sardick. A very dark story with a sad twist. In this one, the miser keeps your family members as collateral when you borrow money from him. Money you’ll never be able to pay back. He had an icebox full of frozen people waiting to be reunited with their families. He won’t even allow them to be thawed out for Christmas.
Doctor Who tries to change his past to make him a nicer person (calling himself the ghost of Christmas past) but the twist here I will not share. It was extremely well written. The lesson perhaps is that your past is what it is and you can’t wish for it to change. You can only change your present.
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