Most of you know that my wife’s favorite Christmas movie is It’s A Wonderful Life. On her birthday, December 1st, our home and world comes to a grinding halt as we order pizza and watch her show. It’s a tradition that doesn’t get broken.
Interestingly, I ran across an article titled 10 Facts About It’s A Wonderful Life. Let me share some of them in a simplified form.
- In 1938, Philip Van Doren Stern came up with the idea for the show while shaving. He quickly sketched a general idea and then spent the next five years turning it into a short story.
- A dream-team of writers turned Stern’s idea into a script.
- Though the big events of the show happen on a Christmas Eve, the show was never meant to be a Christmas movie. It was intended to have a January 1947 release.
- If you know the story, the main character’s brother is a war hero. In real life, Jimmy Stewart, who played the main character, George Bailey, was the war hero, retiring from the Army Air Corps in 1968 as a brigadier general.
- The set of the fictional Bedford Falls covered about four acres, making it one of the largest movie sets. Though the movie is set in the winter, it was actually filmed in the unbearable heat of a California summer. Some days of filming were canceled due to the heat.
- A new kind of fake snow was developed for this movie, made of soap flakes and fire extinguisher foam. Other fake snows at that time were made of corn flakes.
- The movie bombed at the box office, leaving director Frank Capra over a half million dollars in the hole. Some of the original characters never saw the finished film until decades later.
- In 1974, the copyright lapsed. With no royalties to pay, the movie was shown incessantly, causing it to rise as one of the all-time great Christmas movies.1
Now, you don’t watch a movie like It’s A Wonderful Life to develop or mature your
theology. There are definitely some liberties taken to create a feel-good movie. While it’s unfathomable to believe anyone hasn’t seen this movie, the storyline is quite simple. George Bailey is a banker and family man. He tries to be a help to anyone and looks out for the downtrodden. A series of events no fault of his own puts him in a spot where the bank is missing $8,000 and he could go to jail. While contemplating suicide, a bumbling second-class angel comes to rescue him by showing George that his life has really been rich and full. George is shown that his life has mattered and made a difference. At the end, George comes to the conclusion that he is the richest man in town and that he really has had a wonderful life.
The End.
Again, it’s a feel-good movie. It’s intended to make you feel all warm and toasty inside. But I hope it would also make us think. Do you feel like you’ve had a wonderful life? Do you feel like the richest person in town?
If we are believers, 2 Peter 1:1-4 is for us! “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (2) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, (3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: (4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
God has given us everything we need to live a rich, full life. The “rich” isn’t defined by dollars and cents but by Heavenly blessings. Paul said in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (4) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Yes, the Bible says that those blessings are reserved in “heavenly places” but we enjoy many of those benefits right now.
As we prepare to exit 2025, take some time to reflect. It really is a wonderful life when that life is lived IN Christ and FOR Christ and the blessings are all BECAUSE OF Christ. James 1:17 reminds us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
1https://interestingfacts.com/its-a-wonderful-life-facts/
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