David McLaughlan - Its a Wonderful Life: A 31-Day Devotional Based on Favorite Christmas Classics

2013 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Print ISBN 978-1-62416-244-2

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62416-485-9
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Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

Printed in the United States of America.

Heres a fun, nostalgic, encouraging months worth of reading for the busy holiday season!

This brand-new Christmas devotional includes thirty-one brief readings based on Christmas classicsstories, books, movies, poems, and songs. Each entry draws a spiritual point from a classic story, whether sacred or secular, and is accompanied by relevant quotations, scriptures, and prayers.

Entries range from the namesake 1946 film starring Jimmie Stewart, to Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, to the 1965 television favorite A Charlie Brown Christmasand end with the actual account of Jesus birth from Luke 2.

It really is a wonderful lifebecause of Christmas!

George Bailey is usually seen as the archetypal good guy, but, on closer inspection, he is rather like one of those cartoon characters with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

Growing up in Bedford Falls, he learns Christian charity from his father and sees selfish evil in Old Man Potter. He follows his dads good example, stands up for the little guy, and always puts others before himself, but the devil on his shoulder keeps tempting him with dreams of a better life in foreign places.

Eventually, when it seems none of those dreams will ever come true, that voice of failure and despair takes George to a bridge and convinces him to end it all. Thats when Clarence, an angel in training, shows him the difference his life made to his hometown. If hed gone travelling, as the devil kept telling him to, Mr. Potter would have ruined Bedford Falls and countless lives.

Realizing his sacrifices have been worthwhile, George asks God for a second chance. All the ingredients for a happy ending are in placeexcept one. Its Christmas Eve and hes about to lose his home!

Hearing that George and his family are in trouble, the townspeople gather all the cash they can spare and present it to him. For the first time George Bailey allows himself to be helped. For the moviegoers this is the point where the happy tears well up.

Love thy neighbour. Its straightforward enough. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Weve heard it so often. But we have to allow our neighbor to love us as well. Thats why the movie isnt complete until George Bailey, the man who spent his life helping others, is helped. When we finally understand that loving each other is why we are here, and we allow them to love us in return, thats when it truly does become a wonderful life!

Philip Van Doren Stern wrote Its a Wonderful Life in 1939after it came to him in a dream.

The story was originally called The Greatest Gift.

The 1946 movie by Frank Capra was nominated for five Oscars. Amazingly, it won none!

James Stewart played George Bailey; Donna Reed played his ever-supportive wife; Henry Travers was Clarence, the angel in training; and Lionel Barrymore played George Baileys nemesis, Henry F. Potter.

Lord, Your plans are bigger and better than my dreams. Help me see that. And help me see that my joy in doing Your work is not complete unless I can receive Your love as well as give it. May I share that joy with and through those who have much and those with nothing more than a smile to offer. Let me allow them what You allow methe blessing of being able to give.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

J OHN 16:24

For it is in giving that we receive.

F RANCIS OF A SSISI ,
FOUNDER OF THE F RANCISCAN O RDER
(11811226)

When you give of yourself, you receive more than you give.
A NTOINE DE S AINT -E XUPERY ,
F RENCH POET AND AVIATOR
(19001944)

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and receive help from other people.

A LEXIS CARREL ,
F RENCH N OBEL P RIZE WINNER
(18731944)

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

M ARTIN L UTHER ,
LEADING FIGURE IN THE P ROTESTANT
R EFORMATION (14831546)

We usually think of A Christmas Carol as the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. In him we see what happens to a man who surrounds himself with treasures on earth while completely neglecting the treasures of heaven. But while Scrooge is the more dramatic character, we should not forget another player in the storyScrooges nephew!

Every year Fred visits his uncle and invites him to Christmas dinner. He knows he will be rebuffed but, because it is the decent thing to do, he tries. He admits that Uncle Scrooge is not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him.

So Fred was a nice guy, and forgiving, and possibly fond of the old curmudgeon, but did he make a difference? The Spirit of Christmas Past showed Scrooge he hadnt always been that way. Christmas Present showed him what he was depriving himself and others of. Christmas Future showed him where his chosen path would inevitably end. They turned him around.

Ahh, but nephew Fred, in his lack of condemnation, gave Scrooge a place to turn to; a family among whom a lonely old miser might blossom into a human being again.

Few of us will ever be as cut off from humanity as Scrooge was, and fewer still will have the experiences he hadbut every single one of us, at some time or another, will have the chance to let an insult slide past while keeping out that hand of friendship.

Young Fred might not have forgiven his Uncle Scrooge seventy times seven times, as the Bible says, but he would have! If we can do what Fred did for Scrooge, what God does for us, we might also see lives transformed. Then we could happily join the angels in heaven in singing a Christmas carol, no matter what time of year it was!