Beyond Common Sense

In 1946, It’s a Wonderful Life was created.  Perhaps it was the era of new camera lens, but this picture doesn’t really capture how the camera filmed George in this scene.  The photo certainly matched the music to create an “other-world” effect!  At this point, reality set in: What if he really had never been born as Clarence suggested?  Certainly his own mother didn’t know him!  Dear Mrs. Bailey, always sweet and good-natured in the film becomes a sour old dowager running a boarding house!

He then rushes to the cemetery where he discovers that his younger brother died in the sledding accident because George wasn’t there to save him.  His last thoughts are of Mary, his wife.  Clarence breaks the rules and tells George that she’s a spinster librarian.  When she also looks at him as a stranger, he rushes back to the bridge and now prays a prayer that comes from his heart!  “Lord, let me live again!”

Life is so precious!  It can be tedious as we overwhelm our schedules with activities, and at times we can lose our focus on what is truly important.  We end the year with hustle and bustle, all in the name of Christmas – the birth of our Lord; but perhaps it would be good for us to end the year and start the new year with George’s prayer:  “Lord, let me live again!”

“Let me regain my focus on You and Your will for my life.  Help me to realize that this life is not the real life but only a temporary stay.  Help me to live in light of eternity: seeing all that I do, all that I say, all those I meet through the lenses of eternal life and eternal death.  May I bring glory to Your precious name in every way possible; and may Your spirit live in me to truly make this life a wonderful life in Your eyes.  In Jesus’ Name, amen!”

“And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” 1 John 2:25