Buddy the elf and baby Jesus

I love Christmas movies. The kind you watched as a child and through the years at the holidays. Maybe each Thanksgiving evening, after the feast, football games and nap, you’d crowd the family in to grandma’s living room with a bowl of popcorn and watch the classics on t.v. These movies made you laugh, cry, you knew every scene and line. They touched something deep down inside. I wonder why?

I see five themes running through these classics…

Christmas Movie Theme #1 – Ordinary Person Tackles Extraordinary Mission.

“The Santa Clause”, “Home Alone”
Think about it. We love those types of movies because we can identify with them – just an average day, an average Joe, going about his business, when all of a sudden – BOOM! He accidentally kills Santa Claus and has to fill Ole Saint Nick’s shoes – literally.

Christmas Movie Theme #2 – “Disillusioned Soul Has Their Faith Rekindled.”

“Miracle On 34th Street”, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”
Ok, “hanky alert”. Some holiday classics just grab your heart. Take a hard-working single mom, adorable little kids, a pudgy angel, a good-hearted guy that’s lost his sense of purpose in life – we’re ready for some water works! But you know by the end of the movie that the Spirit of the season will revive them.

Christmas Movie Theme #3 – “Hardened heart is transformed by a miraculous event”

“How The Grinch Stole Christmas“, “A Christmas Carol“,”Elf”
Who-ville and humbug! Christmas just seems to be the medicine to thaw the cold heart of grinchs and stingy bankers alike. It may be predictable, but we’re all cheering for the heart-transplant to take place.

Christmas Movie Theme #4 – “Seeker yearns for the ultimate gift that will bring happiness”

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation“, “A Christmas Story”
Are you finished with your Christmas shopping? Have you even started it yet? What gift would make YOU happy this Christmas? Do you ever get what you want? Do you ever want what you get? Like children with our faces pressed against the store window, we’re ALL seeking something.

As I said earlier, these movies touch something down deep. I wonder why? Are they just sentimental? Do they simply take us back to fond memories? Or is there something that strikes deeper?

Why do these stories ring true? Because they are true. They are shadows of the real Christmas Story, and our hearts know it.

Unlikely Santas, red-nosed reindeers, feisty home-defending boys appear on the screen, but they are shadows of the first “ordinary people that were swept in to an extraordinary Christmas mission”. A teenaged couple, minding their own business, planning a wedding, suddenly thrust in to the hinge of history.

The stories are filled with “disillusioned souls in need of a rekindling”. But they point back to an old couple, a good woman who had longed for a child but never had one. Her life would’ve closed with her sadness – but a shocking announcement from an angel filled her with a miracle child. And her faith blazed to life as she learned about the miracle child her teen aged cousin was carrying.

Life can make a heart hardened. Years without love, disappointment, pain – shields come up and the lights go out. Maybe like those in the first Story. Shepherds. Men who had a hard life, a hard job. Living away from town, away from community. Tough guys. But not so tough that a blast of angelic light couldn’t strike fear, then curiosity. They just HAD to go see what they had been told.

And the seekers. That elusive, perfect gift. The one that assures happiness, that makes our dreams come true? These astronomers actually found it. But they never would have, had they never left home. They paid the price, went the distance, gave all so they could find everything.

We watch them on screen, we see their shadows leading back to the Christmas characters. But they also reach out to each of us.

Where do YOU find yourself in the Story? WHO are you?

An ordinary person, living life, following your own plan? Did you know the God of Christmas wants to invade your life with a spectacular mission? Are you ready to accept it?

The disillusioned soul. What’s brought you to this point? Why has the flame gone out? Why did you loose faith? What is your disappointment with life - with God?

A hardened heart. Its been a tough year, hasn’t it? You never dreamed he or she would leave. You didn’t plan on the downturn in the career, the portfolio, the health report. You’re hurt, angry, cold. Is there any hope?

What are you seeking? What would make you happy? You’ve been running hard after every rainbow, every brass ring. Has it satisfied you? Is happiness always just out of reach? What if there was something – Someone – that would make the quest worthwhile?

They came down different roads. They were drawn here to experience the true story of Christmas, not just to watch it on a screen, but to enter the story themselves. To have their lives transformed forever. They HAD to walk through the stable door. Beyond it they would find salvation.

The door is still open. Plenty of room for the ordinary, the disillusioned, the hardened, the seeker. Plenty of room… FOR YOU. Do you need to walk through this door?

Oh yes, wait. One more theme that runs through Christmas movies –

Christmas Movie Theme #5 - “Supernatural Being saves the day”.

And I’ll give you a hint. It ain’t Santa…