On Tuesday, our local classic theater in Marietta, The Strand, aired a marathon of It’s a Wonderful Life. They started it in the morning and just repeated it throughout the day and well into the night. It’s a wonderful Christmas movie about a man at the end of his rope who prays to God to show him the way. At the end of George’s prayer he gets punched in the mouth by an irate spouse of one of George’s children’s teachers. Understandably, George thinks that was God’s answer to his prayer.
Instead, God sends George an angel named Clarence. Ostensibly, Clarence shows George how bleak everyone’s life would be if George had never existed. I think there’s another, significant message in this movie.
With the exception of granting George’s wish to have never been born and, in one instance, Clarence helping George disappear while avoiding arrest, neither Clarence nor God intervene in George’s experience.
George’s wife, Mary, intervenes a lot. Mary saves the Building and Loan and the community of Bedford Falls by offering up she and George’s nest egg when the stock market crashes. Mary acquires the old Granville house for George and Mary to raise their future family in. Mary later convenes the community to rescue George from Uncle Billy’s carelessness. Mary is the catalyst for material change. God bless Mary for seeing George. God bless Mary for being his better half.
From the traditional perception of the story, George realizes his value from everyone else’s eyes. His brother would have died. His children wouldn’t have existed. His mother would be a nasty old woman. His wife would be a sad spinster. So the story goes, George is happy to exist so that everyone else can be better off. This is certainly consistent with the narrative that George constantly sacrifices his life for others.
But there are elements in the story which do not support that story line and yield to a greater message. When George re-exists, he realizes his mouth is bleeding from the punch of that angry spouse. “My mouth’s bleeding Burt! Isn’t that wonderful? Merry Christmas!” When George reaches into the coin pocket of his trousers he finds a precious discovery, “There they are! Zuzu’s petals.” When George rushes back into his house and up the stairs, the finial pops off in his hand as it had several times in prior scenes. Instead of before when George showed frustration and even anger at the errant handrail accouterment, this time he is elated. I think he even kisses it.
What changes in George’s life, for George’s experience, is God’s gift. God gave George the gift of awareness. Yes, George became aware of how important his life was to others, but even more importantly, George becomes aware of how important his life is to himself. George becomes aware of how wonderful his existence, his experience was and is. George becomes aware of just how precious his life is. That doesn’t happen without awareness. That doesn’t happen without the ability to realize that your mouth bleeding means you are alive and aware of your existence which is a beautiful thing. That doesn’t happen without stopping to smell the roses, played in the movie by Zuzu’s petals. That doesn’t happen without realizing that the same event which before had left you frustrated and even angry, was a beautiful thing because you were a part of it and you were paying attention; you were aware.
That’s what changed for George. He became aware of the quality of experience itself. He became aware of the vitality of awareness. God’s great gift to George was the gift of awareness.
As George expresses, “It is a Wonderful Life.”
Indeed, it is if we’ll just pay attention to it.
Merry Christmas.