George Bailey...Everyone Needs a Clarence!

Dear Readers,

George Bailey in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” was ready to jump off the bridge into the frigid waters. He had reached the end and could not see any other way out. His idyllic fantasy of becoming a world traveling entrepreneur had long vanished. The honeymoon with his wife Mary Bailey now seemed like an obscure dream.

The demands of life became George’s reality. The family owned bank business was like an albatross around his neck. Mary and the kids turned from being a joy to a burden. Mr. Potter met him at every turn to thwart his success. George’s fond memories of his childhood town faded into the past and now Bedford Falls was his prison.

George felt out of options. The icy waters seemed to be his only way to find relief. He readied to jump, but a cry came out from the waters below. It was Clarence Odbody, the angel sent to save George from himself. George jumped in, saved Clarence, and the bumbling angel trying to earn his wings helped George see that “…no man is a failure who has friends.”

Do you feel like George this Christmas? I have felt like George from time to time. The demands of life start pressing in, the honeymoon feels over, and the options for relief, like the icy waters for George, seem the only way out.

Christmas is a time of expectation, but after Christmas day arrives and the fun ends, the expectation turns to the mundane task of taking down the decorations… and another year of hard work in our own Bedford Falls.

We all need a Clarence to help us to see our life with a fresh perspective, a perspective of hope and friendship, of the good things to come, of the fun of taking down the decorations and looking forward to the new things in the coming year.

I am not sure how angels really operate. I think that the movie used creative license to make the storyline more interesting. I do, however, think there is someone sent to save us from the icy waters and give us the fresh perspective we need of hope, friendship, and the possibilities of a new year. His name is Jesus!

See you next time,
Arlen