Journal of Sacred Work

   One man’s life touches so many others,
when he’s not there it leaves an awfully big hole.
– Henry Travers (Clarence, Angel 2nd Class) in Frank Capra’s "It’s A Wonderful Life."

   About seventy years ago, Phillip Van Doren Stern had a dream which ended up transforming our lives. All of us dream, but Stern decided to do something with the images that danced through his head on that morning in the 1930s after he awoke. He began to pen a short story. He put it aside for awhile, then finished the story at the height of World War II in 1943. He called his 4000-word effort "The Greatest Gift."
   No publisher would buy it, so Stern (photo at left) made 200 copies at his own expense and gave them to friends as Christmas gifts.  His story ended up become one of the most popular films ever…   

   It’s very unlikely that you’ve ever heard of this author that enhanced
the quality of your Christmas experience, because Frank Capra gets most
of the credit for the way he took Stern’s story and transformed it into
one of the finest films in history – "It’s A Wonderful Life." Indeed,
you’re probably a lot more familiar with the film’s star, JImmy
Stewart, then you are with the people who thought up the story and
wrote Stewart’s lines. Yet the story itself is what has spoken to
caregivers through the film made sixty years ago.
    Caregivers who choose to take a couple hours over the holidays to enter the world of George
Bailey and the snow-covered town of Bedford Falls will always be rewarded with a life-enriching message. They will see Jimmy Stewart and
Donna Reed lasso each other’s hearts (and ours) again. We will
all have the chance to wonder, like the star, what would have happened if we had never lived and to tip our hearts to the man who gave us this eternal story.
   That is the magic of the best stories that emerge in books and on the screen around Christmas. When Charles Dickens hatched Ebenezer Scrooge he gave us all the chance to reflect on our personal legacies. Will we be remembered as misers who hoarded our money and made life miserable for those around us? Or will we choose to enter the Christmas spirit year-round bringing joy and good will to strangers and friends alike?
   Will we nurture the hope of "Miracle on 34th Street" or will be scoff at Santa Claus as nonsense?
   Beyond any of these tales, what is our life story? The turning point for George Bailey came at his lowest point when he stands on that famous little bridge and contemplates suicide because he feels like his life is a failure.
   I have a dear friend who is struggling  in much the same way this holiday season. The wife he dearly loves no longer loves him. A marriage approaching twenty years is on the verge of ending. Distraught, this devoted husband, a caregiver in a large hospital, has begun to wonder about the meaning of his own life.
   In the middle of depression, its difficult to envision the kind of happy ending that routinely caps the movie classics. When other people tell my friend to snap out of it, he becomes more depressed because he wonders why he can’t. When they predict happier days ahead, it intensifies the darkness he feels right now.
   My friend has brought joy and energy to the lives of so many through his caregiving efforts. Its likely you have benefited from his work but if I told you how, I might reveal his identity. Instead, I hope you will offer prayers for him and for all those who may have lost sight of how their lives have helped so many.

   George Bailey is lucky enough to have Clarenece, his Guardian Angel, appear in person to take him on a literal journey to show what the world would have been like if he had never lived. To the star’s surprise, he discovers countless happy consequences of his best life efforts and experiences dismay when the people who are dear to him don’t know him because he never lived.
   The power of the story is its extraordinary ability to help us engage the gift of gratitude. George Bailey’s life matters after all, he discovers, just as does yours. If you had never lived, the particular kind gestures you have made to help others would never have been made. You are a gift to the world and your life is sacred.
   Caregivers transform the lives of all they encounter. Your love flows out to fill the dark hole of another’s need. Without it, our lives are emptied of meaning. With it, our lives – yours and mine – are redeemed.
   Because of Stern’s story,  Frank Capra found the chance to create a timeless film that is a happy part of millions of lives. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and dozens of others in the film are as much a part of our consciousness as if they were old friends which, in an important way, they are.
   For Christians, the greatest story ever told is, of course, the life of the one whose birth gave rise to Christmas. Jesus’s example and teachings inform and enrich the lives of billions.
   Perhaps that is one reason George Bailey’s existence is so inspiring. He experiences a sort of death and resurrection on the screen, telling all of us that our lives are more meaningful than we can possibly imagine.
   On man sits down in 1943 to pen a single short story. He makes copies for 200 friends. That solitary story has become known to easily over one hundred million. A sort of caregiver himself,   Stern, who passed away at age eighty-four in 1984, could not possibly have imagined this kind of impact.
   There are countless people out there whose lives you have touched and made better with your love. You will touch some lives today, and more tomorrow, with the gift of light that flows through you. Thank you for your wonderful life.

-Erie Chapman

More Gifts from "It’s A Wonderful Life"

Jimmy Stewart (George): What do you want, Mary? Do you
want the moon? If you want it, I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down
for you. Hey! That’s a pretty good idea! I’ll give you the moon, Mary.

Donna Reed (Mary Hatch Bailey): I’ll take it! Then what?

Jimmy Stewart (George): Well, then you can swallow it, and it’ll all
dissolve see, and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes
and the ends of your hair… am I talking too much?
——
Henry
Travers (Clarence): Remember George, No man is a failure who has
friends.