I find ‘A Christmas Carol’ to be an utterly amazing masterpiece. I know not whether literary critics would frown at me, but frankly I don’t care. We have just read it aloud again as a family. And I am inspired to join Scrooge in his solemn resolution.
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
It’s about conversion, and new life. Really, what else is there? Scrooge’s resolution to live in the past, present, and future is of course fundamentally about the present. We remember and learn from the past, we foresee and prepare for the future, in order to live well here and now.
At the end of the last spirit’s visit, the “Phantom’s hood and dress…collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.” Then, joy of joys, Scrooge discovers that “the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!”
The time before me is my own! Conversion is not most about making ‘amends’—though amends are often quite in order. It is about really coming to life; becoming who I’m called to be; finally.
And ‘A Christmas Carol’ speaks so deeply to me of precisely that.
Perhaps it is because Bob Cratchit embodies so much of the father I still hope to be to my children, and of the husband I want to be to my wife.
Perhaps it is because dear old Fezziwig does for those around him (and this, especially expressed through putting on a dance for them!) what I should strive to do, in my own way, for those around me.
Perhaps it is because when I read of the converted Scrooge that “[he] found that everything could yield him pleasure,” something in me says, “Yes! It can be so, if I but open my eyes and really see!”
Perhaps it is because there is more of Scrooge’s self-centeredness in me than I have yet reckoned with. And when I see that there is mercy and hope for him, I think of the all-encompassing nature of the divine kindness, of His desire to bring us back. All of us; ultimately to Himself. There is nothing in my past or in my future that cannot be integrated into peace and joy in my present. So my heart thrills at the hope of real conversion, of starting again, by living in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
Of course every day can be Christmas. Else there would be no point to Christmas at all. This year, may our celebration of Christmas more truly bring this to light and make it a reality for us. And while this year’s particular celebration in a sense comes to an end, in the deeper sense it need never come to an end. Ever. ~ ~ ~
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Don’t forget our recordings of great Christmas stories you can listen to with the family in these cozy days. [search ‘Christmas’ to see them all]
Here is a podcast Sofia and I did on Fezziwig’s dance from ‘A Christmas Carol’:
Here is a recording of the beautiful Lessons & Carols that Sofia directed on Sunday:
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This is so good, Dr. Cuddeback. I find a similar reminder each year when I hear the Christmas Carol. There is so much joy and gratitude we should experience just in having….TODAY!
I hope your Christmas and new year are exceedingly blessed. Your work has been such a blessing for me. Thank you!+
Thank you so much, Jedidiah. I am so grateful to hear that. May these holy days be blessed for you and yours.
John, your words lead me into prayer this morning, as they so often do.
I pray that God might never take away my self-centeredness, but rather permit me to suffer it entirely, for it is my constant and necessary reminder that I am only and always completed in Him and through Him. God is sufficient to my weakness. This is joy; please God may we never forget it.
Ref. 2 Cor. 12.9
As you have well said, “There is nothing in my past or in my future that cannot be integrated into peace and joy in my present.”
“God bless us, every one!”
God bless us, indeed, Ellen. Thank you very much for these words. (That my reflections lead to prayer is humbling and encouraging. Thank you.)
Hear, hear! Having read the book and seen numerous movie adaptations, I’ve drawn a loose analogy between Scrooge and Job. Despite their differences, each man had a struggle. Scrooge’s was moral, with his soul apparently at risk; Job’s was theological as he struggled to understand God in the midst of horrible setbacks/sufferings. Yet, each had an interpretative experience with the spiritual: Scrooge with messengers who were Ghosts (and we know that angels are messengers from God), and Job directly with the Almighty. Each was transformed thereafter and given new life in his respective realm. I take great heart in each story, but particularly in Scrooge’s at this time of year, when the time of the Incarnation and new life, offered to us all, is upon us.
Oh good point!
Indeed, Bob; thank you very much.
Thanks
Very welcome! Happy New Year.