HOPE from Dickens

In spite of the rather presumptuous and pompous title, The Man Who Invented Christmas is a great movie. In fact, it’s marvelous! Taking place in Dickens’ own lifetime, it shows the struggle he went through in writing A Christmas Carol, inner turmoil that all writers go through. But it is more than that. Inside all of us lives a Scrooge, and the sooner we come to grips with that, the better. Dickens realized it, after wrestling with the story for weeks.  

If you remember the story, Tiny Tim says in the end “God bless us every one.” Well, at first Dickens was going to have him die, and have Scrooge NOT change at all. How different the story would have been! I doubt if it ever would have seen the light of day, had he written it as he originally intended to. The over-arching message of the story is that people CAN change, and that truly gives Hope.

At the end of the movie, we see this: “A Christmas Carol came out on Dec. 19, 1843, and it was all sold out by Christmas Eve. Charitable giving soared…” Now I know that Dickens wasn’t the only person who influenced the culture at that time. William Wilberforce had died just 10 years prior to that, and he was a tremendous influence on the culture as a whole. Making it a good thing to be unselfish, generous, and kind, especially to those who were less fortunate.

But it seems we need to be reminded every decade or so. Live to give. Don’t yield to the Scrooge within. We watched The Christmas Shoes just one night before. If you aren’t familiar with that movie, it is a good story about the softening of a father’s heart for his family. It’s a real tear-jerker, but worth watching. I found myself softening, towards my husband, towards my grandchildren, slowing down to be thankful for little things.

How many times in counseling do I say to my clients that they need to be thankful in order to be happy? But I need to be reminded of it myself. I could relate to Dickens’ wife, because I’m married to a writer too. And like she said, it’s not always easy. (Jerry would admit to that!) But overall, I do have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is that Jerry is not as emotional and eccentric as Dickens!

This Christmas, let me leave you with one thought: Be generous and humble. Be Jesus to people. He came to earth so that you can do this, by His grace.