Christmas Icon
By Jack Wyman
It was improbable.
The plot itself was bizarre.
Was it creative or hair-brained? Intriguing or misleading? Realistic or fatalistic? Hopeful or desperate?
The critics panned it. They said it was too dark. Especially for Christmas.
This year is its 75th anniversary.
It is the story of a good and decent man who was always helping others - deferring his own dreams - until the day he needed help. Not knowing where to turn, in desperation, on Christmas Eve, he attempted suicide for the life insurance.
He was suddenly rescued by a sweetly amiable but unimpressive guardian angel named Clarence. The angel, eager to earn his wings, decided to teach the desperate man the value of life by making the man’s own life non-existent.
“OK George, you’ve got your wish - you’ve never been born.”
The remainder of the film shows what life would have been like for those he’d known if George Bailey had never been born. If he hadn’t helped all those people because he hadn’t been there to help them.
In every instance, in every life story - in the life of the small, picturesque town of Bedford Falls itself - happiness and hope had been replaced by desperation and depression.
The most graphic example was George’s younger brother Harry. While sledding as kids, Harry had fallen through the ice. George pulled him out and saved his life. But now, with George getting his wish never to have been born, it was a different story.
“Your brother, Harry Bailey,” Clarence told George, “broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.”
“That’s a lie!” George shouted. “Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport.”
Clarence sadly shakes his head.
“Every man on that transport died! Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry.”
Clarence pauses and looks at George.
“You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?” This new sober reality gets George’s attention in a powerful way. Clarence says to George:
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
Gloria Stewart, Jimmy’s wife, told the story of a man who checked into a hotel planning to end it all. It was the Christmas season. He turned on the TV, and It’s a Wonderful Life was playing. Later, the man wrote Jimmy Stewart a letter thanking him for saving his life.
Like so many of life’s improbabilities, It’s a Wonderful Life had its own irony. It was not the kind of movie destined to be a Christmas classic.
It became one. Why?
The film teaches us about Christmas. About its spirit. Its meaning. About prayer. The struggle between good and evil. This movie teaches us about human nature and life in this world. It shows us ourselves. It shows us God.
George Bailey never realizes his youthful dreams because he’s too busy helping other people realize theirs. He denies himself for the sake of others. Even when he rescues Harry, the cold water and freezing temperatures rob George of his hearing in one ear.
George prevents Mr. Gower, the distraught druggist, from accidentally prescribing poison. George lets Harry go to college ahead of him, while George works at the family Building and Loan. Then Harry gets married and goes to work for his father-in-law. George remains at the Building and Loan. He even takes his and Mary’s honeymoon money and gives it to struggling customers during a run on the banks.
He gives of himself and takes nothing for himself. George Bailey lives in the selfless spirit of Christmas all year long.
Mr. Potter, the villain of the film, is rich, greedy, arrogant, heartless and miserable. He lives only for himself. His wealth brings him not happiness but envy and resentment. He uses pride and greed to try and lure George into his evil web.
Mr. Potter is the example of life without Christmas - without Christ, without joy or hope.
When George can’t find the $8,000 his absent-minded Uncle Billy has misplaced - and Potter calls the police - George finds himself in a bar, crying out to God for help. Amazingly, James Stewart did the heart-rending close-up in one take.
“Dear Father in heaven,” George quietly sobs, “I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there, and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. Show me the way.”
It’s the desperate plea of the distraught father: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
It’s the prayer most of us will pray at some point in our lives.
God hears George. He knows the good that George has done his whole life. He sees his need, and God has mercy upon him - and upon those many who have joined the prayer-chain on behalf of a man they love.
God sends Clarence, an unlikely deliverer. Clarence helps George to remember - and to understand again - the true value of things and the precious gift of life.
The community rallies. People help George.
They raise more money than he needs. Harry, who has come home to celebrate Christmas, raises a toast among the jubilant gathering crowded into that old house that George, Mary and their three children call home.
“To my brother George - the richest man in town!”
From beginning to end, every scene of this movie is about Christmas.
The hopes and fears of all the years - the love, devotion, prayer, God’s rescue and salvation, the meaning and value of life, the importance of giving, and the blessings of family and friends.
We never tire of watching it. After 75 years, it remains fresh and relevant. We laugh and we cry. It’s a story about the triumph of the Spirit of Christmas.
No wonder It’s a Wonderful Life has become a Christmas icon.
May God bless you and your family!
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