3 Lessons Learned From "It's a Wonderful Life"

Each Christmas for as long as I can remember the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" has been shown on television. I have watched the movie countless times and have marveled at the timelessness of the movie. Even though the movie was made in 1949 there are lesson buried in the plot line for each and every soul.

Here are just three of the many lessons I learned from watching the film a few times.

Life is not only about us it is about those we come in contact with in our day to day wanderings. Each person we come in contact is another person we affect in some small or maybe some big way. Maybe it just some words we say or some deed we do but the person walks away chnged just a little bit by meeting us.

In the film, angel in training, Clarence Oddbody, shows George Bailey how his life has tocuhed so many others in his community and how without him (George) around how worse off other people are. He tell's George,"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

George Bailey does not realize how many lives he's touched, in a good way, throughout his lifetime until Clarence gives him a glimpse of what life is like for others without him being there. The angel shows George what life in the town is like without his being there to spread his love and goodwill. George calls out for the angel to take him back, which Clarence does.

At the end of the film George Bailey, who faces jail time because of the mishandling of bank funds discovers he is loved by countless people in the town when they show up with more than enough cash to bail George out. George is a perfect example of the old Biblical adage to be loved you must first show love. .

In Hebrews 11:1 the bible gives this definition of faith, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." George Bailey at one point in the film loses faith in his abilities and cries out. His faith wains because of what he sees going on around him and in his life.

At the end of the film his faith is restored and he realizes how much he is needed by those around. Even though he knows by going back he will be in trouble with the law he returns and is rewarded for his faith by having his problems eased by the friends around him. Faith is knowing no matter what you're not alone and no matter what happens when you call out someone will answer.

Most people think
they’re lives are nothing special
Just ho hum ways
In ho hum days

But I know
But I’ve heard
If you go back
Look at your life
See all the lives
you’ve touched
all the friends
now and lost

See all the people
you’ve loved
in big and small ways

You will see
your life
is anything but
dull
Without you
there would be
a big hole
in a lot of people’s lives