Is it too late for
another Christmas post? KLove is still
playing the Christmas tunes and New Years is kind of like a fake holiday, so I
think I’m okay.
This Christmas I had two
different encounters with A Christmas
Carol by Charles Dickens. The story
is one that I always assumed I knew because it’s such a classic, but I realized
this year that all I really knew about the story is that there’s a guy named
Scrooge who says “bah humbug”, and I watched Melissa Zimmerman (when she was a Walters)
in a theater production of the story when we were in about ninth grade.
Also, when it comes to
fictional characters who hate Christmas, everything starts to blur together
with The Grinch.
Needless to say, I
really had no idea what A Christmas Carol
is about. This year, I got educated
after our family went through a walking tour of A Christmas Carol exhibit in Philadelphia and later when we gathered around on
Christmas Eve to watch the made-for-TV movie recreation of the story. Despite the fact that we waited over an hour
in line to see the exhibit, and the movie took some frightening liberties in
depicting certain characters:
…becoming acquainted
with the story opened my eyes to a number of Spiritual realities.
For those (like me) who don’t
really know the story, here are the highlights (spoiler alert...but seriously,
the book was written in 1843, so if no one has spoiled it for you by know,
they need to):
A man named Ebenezer
Scrooge hates Christmas. He says “bah
humbug” a lot (which I can only assume is the 1843 translation of “Ughhhhh >:-/”). He lives only for his business and making
money. One night before Christmas, a
ghost of Scrooge’s old business partner, Jacob Marley (who died seven years prior),
visits Scrooge and warns him to change his selfish and greedy ways. When he lived, Marley had the same negative attitude
as Scrooge, and he warns Ebenezer that it has haunted him after death. Scrooge is then visited by three spirits—the Ghost
of Christmas Past who takes him back to his childhood, the Ghost of Christmas Present
who shows him various people in his town who live humbly but have great joy,
and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who shows him what the world will be
like if Scrooge doesn’t change. The
visits with the ghosts are enough to convince Scrooge that there is more to
life than his business, and in turn, he renews his attitude to be generous and
enthusiastic about life.
Allusions to Scripture
are all throughout the story:
“Darkness is cheap, and
Scrooge liked it.” –A Christmas Carol
“But if
anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
(John 11:10)
.....
“There are
some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who lay claim to know us,
and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and
selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as
if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves,
not us.” –ACC
“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will
tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
(Matthew 7:22)
.....
“‘You
fear the world too much,' she answered gently. 'All your other hopes have
merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have
seen your nobler aspirations fall off, one by one, until the master passion, Gain,
engrosses you.’” –ACC
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." (Matthew 6:24)
.....
“‘Come in!’ exclaimed
the Ghost. ‘Come in! and know me better, man!”… ‘I am the Ghost of Christmas
Present,’ said the Spirit. ‘Look upon me!’…‘Touch my robe!’” –ACC
“Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew
11:28)
“When
she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his
cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his
clothes, I will be healed.’” (Mark 5:27-28)
.....
This
year, Christmas has come and gone. But
the call to “come and know” Jesus is a daily one. Each day I should try to know Him better than
yesterday. I should, by His grace, be
more righteous than the day before.
There is hope in Christ to be the person I was made to be.
Scrooge
had the life-altering chance to see what his life would be like if he continued
in darkness; Jesus came so that we would not even have to dream of darkness. Let us continue, each day, in the light as He
is in the light.
“God bless us, every one!” –Ebenezer Scrooge
