Thursday, Lafayette, Indiana

Any list of the most popular Christmas movies of all time will include Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life. In most cases it is rated at the top of the list. For more than two generations this warm film starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore has been a staple of the season. It is among the select films that we are willing to watch repeatedly, even as we know the story and dialogue by heart, to capture the feeling of optimism and hope that it so strongly evokes.

This is a post war film, released in 1946 and is a story of disappointments and unfulfilled dreams. George Bailey never achieves his desire for a life of travel and adventure. Instead he finds himself stuck in his small town trapped to his job at a marginal local bank that barely keeps afloat. Matters come to a crisis that brings the hopeless young man to the brink of suicide. And at this critical moment he is graced with divine intervention in the form of a simplistic little angel who offers him a vision of the real value of his life.

What Do We Learn

Many Christmas stories emphasize the importance of love and family. On this matter It’s A Wonderful Life does the same. But what is unique here is that the love and support that George needs is not far away, it is all around him. Although he could not see it through the fog of his fantasies and dreams, his meaning was anchored in the hundreds of simple souls that lived all around him. Everything and everyone he needed was within a mile of his home.

The emotional and spiritual awakening of George Bailey resonates with us who are similarly lost at times and wonder where the meaning of our lives is to be found. Watching this sweet little film, not a big hit at all when first released, stays with us because we too sometimes need a miracle. And if we cannot get a divine intervention, we can rely of the premise that our salvation is found in the small, yet mighty souls that surround us right where we are tonight.