It's A Wordeful Life... OR.. IT COULD BE One of the greatest things I enjoy about this time of year is watching the holiday movies that are shown either on TV or we dig out of the videos or DVD’s because it just seems like the right thing to do.

One of my absolute favourites is It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. The whole movie is entertaining and a classic, but the last half hour is worth the price of admission. That’s when Stewart’s character George Bailey, comes back from seeing what his world, as he knows it, would have been like if he hadn’t been born. The part that makes my eyes well up is when he realizes he’s back in his reality and that everything is still as it was and he has been given a second chance to stop dwelling about what could have been and start appreciating what is really good and meaningful in his life now. Especially, touching is when he hugs his kids and their excitement at seeing him and then his reunion with his wife Mary. None of them realize what he has experienced or is truly feeling but in his excitement he can’t stop touching, holding and even looking at them with a new sense of excitement.

Let’s face it, there isn’t anything sweeter than redemption. Another movie that I have become quite enamored with is a newer romantic, comedy movie called the Family Man starting Nicolas Cage. If you wanted to rename this movie you could call it “It Could Have Been A Wonderful Life”, where Cage’s character Jack Campbell could have been George Bailey. Jack starts out as a very successful, prestigious investment banker in New York, who is dedicated at making lots of money and lives a fulfilling single life. Like Bailey, Jack meets a heavenly messenger named Cash. After Jack tells Cash that his life is perfect as it is and he needs nothing, he wakes up in a very different world. He is now manager of a tire store, living in New Jersey and he is married to Kate and has two young children. The interesting twist is that Kate was Jack’s college sweetheart thirteen years earlier but Jack decided to go to London for his internship. In his new timeline, he decided to not to break up with Kate, gave up his London opportunity and began a much different life with her. His new daily routines are made up with changing diapers, feeding the kids, getting them to daycare and school then picking them up (does any of is this sound at all familiar). He now lives on a tight, frugal budget with his working wife, bowls with his buddies and goes to bed exhausted. Not quite the New York life style he was use to.

For a while, Jack is in shock. He misses the self-esteem, the toys that went with being on top, like the suits, food, cars and girlfriends. During an anniversary dinner, Jack admits to Kate that he feels like he is living someone else’s life and he woke up and everything was different (some things not as good but mostly different). During this time of honesty, they both admit that they have wondered what their life would have been like if they had not been married to each other. But then they realize by doing that they would have erased all the things that mean the most to them, each other, their kids and their life. Later that evening, Jack tells Kate that he has never stopped loving her, and her response is simple, she says “that’s all I wanted to hear”.

Much like our reality, the daily routine just keeps coming and eventually Jack makes a life-changing discovery. He finds that even with dirty diapers and bowling shirts, his new life is way better than his old life. Why? Because he realizes that love is better than good things. That being together is better than being alone and being in love is way better than just romancing.

The Christ-child who came to this earth to live with us and then gave up His life on the cross only to rise triumphant from the grave, gave us the greatest gift of redemption. It’s a story that is never old or boring and is always exciting to hear and more to tell.

But we have the power of redemption that we can give to ourselves. You may be at a point in your life where you are wondering…what if. Lets take a moment and consider that our culture still tries to tell us myths about what marriage should be or the wonders of marriage. But here are two stories that say a good marriage is more important than having riches or having the job or profession we dreamed about. They say look at what you have instead of what you don’t have and for all that we can be grateful.

Go ahead, give yourself a second chance. You and everyone around you are worth it.

I hope this is the best Christmas you have ever had.

From someone who really does care.