A Wonderful Life:
Lessons From a Holiday Classic
by Nathan Willis
Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It’s not because Christmas brings with it presents, time with family, time off of school, and great music, it’s because Christmas time means Christmas movies. I look forward to watching movies like Home Alone, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and A Christmas Story every year in great anticipation. While all of these movies are great, my favorite Christmas movie of all time is, by far, It’s a Wonderful Life.
It’s a Wonderful Life is an older movie that tells the story of George Bailey, a family man who has a bad day and wishes he had never been born. George gets his wish answered in the form of an angel named Clarence. Clarence is able to show George what the world would be like had he never been born and George gets a rare opportunity to see how much he really means to everyone in his community. Had George not been born, his younger brother would have died, his hometown would be full of corruption, and his wife would be an old maid living by herself. Near the end of the film, Clarence says to George, “Strange isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. And when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
It’s so easy for me to feel insignificant at times. We live in a culture where we are defined by what we own and what we do. We feel like others won’t like us as much unless we drive a nice car, have an iPod, or make all A’s. The same thing often happens in our Christian culture as well. It seems to me that we often put missionaries and preachers up on a pedestal, thinking that they are the ones that are really doing God’s will and that maybe they’ll have a bigger crown than us when we get to Heaven. However, when I watch It’s a Wonderful Life, I realize that God doesn’t call all of us to be the next Billy Graham.
George Bailey wasn’t a doctor who found the cure for cancer or a missionary who started a revival in Africa that brought millions to Christ. George Bailey was a simple businessman who did small favors for people, encouraged his friends who were hurting, gave what little money he had to people who needed it, and who loved his family. All of these things seemed insignificant at the time, but they all had a lasting impact on the world around him. If George Bailey were a real person, there would never be a book written about his life or a movie made about all the great things he did, but that doesn’t mean that his life was wasted.
We have all had days like George Bailey. We’ve all had days when we feel as though there is nowhere to turn and days when we wonder (if only for a second) if the world would be a better place without us. God will probably never send us a Clarence to show us how important our life really is, but that’s no excuse to feel insignificant. The Christmas season is the ultimate reminder of how important we really are. Christmas is the time when we remember the story of Christ leaving His home in Heaven to live among us and to die for us.
While I would love to be the guy who finds the cure for asthma or directs an Oscar winning movie, I probably won’t; but that doesn’t mean that I’m unimportant. God has big plans for my life. They may not be the big plans I have in mind for myself, but God obviously thought the plans He has for me were important enough to die for, and, if you ask me, that’s pretty important.
Nathan Willis is a student at North Greenville University. He has served the last two summers on Seesalt’s tech staff. If you want to know about movies, asthma, or Africa, he’s your man. The hand on top of his head in the picture is not his, by the way.