We watch movies in our house, and they enter our language. Crying, for example, is known as ‘Going a bit Sound of Music’ after my habit of weeping uncontrollably whenever Captain Von Trapp sings Edelweiss.
The key Christmas movie, though, is It’s A Wonderful Life, which was released seventy years ago this week. Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a man faced with ruin who decides to take his own life. It’s a bleak start to a heartwarming Christmas tale, but George is rescued by being shown how much colder and harder the world would have been without him.
The thing is, he doesn’t know what he’s done to transform the lives of his family, friends and neighbours. He thinks his life has been worthless but he has lived it kindly and selflessly and his acts of kindness have helped make a better world.
Joseph, Jesus’ father, reminds me of George Bailey. He’s often there in paintings of the Nativity, on the edge, looking a little mournful, as if he’s about to run off and end it all, thinking, ‘Heaven help me, I’m in a stable, I’ve got a new baby and that ox is looking at me in a funny way’.
Yet, if you read back into his story you see kindness. Taking Mary in when she was pregnant with a baby that was clearly not his. Protecting her from prying eyes and sharp tongues. Mary was a sidebar-of-shame waiting to happen but Joseph was never gonna give her up. Joseph was kind.
We often talk about the transforming power of the Christmas Spirit, but I reckon that’s a load of old nonsense. What’s transformative is the power of kindness.
Giving presents is kind. Sharing a meal is kind. Going out of your way to see friends, neighbours and family is kind. There is joy in knowing someone loves you enough to feed you or give you a gift, or in making someone less lonely.
Christians believe that Christmas remembers when God was kind enough to come and live with us. Born in poverty, in a shed in an occupied territory, he shared all the love and terror, cold and warmth of being human. It was a gift, selflessly given, a miracle of kindness to show us that even though it might sometimes seem unbearably grim, in spite of everything, this really can be a wonderful life. Happy Christmas.
In the studio when this was broadcast was the great Rick Astley. Dressed as an elf. What a nice man.