”Praise the Lord, my soul,
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul
and forget not all his benefits.” Psalm 1031-2
In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey and Mary do get married. They use their honeymoon money to save the building and loan company from an apparent bank run and start their honeymoon in the drafty old house they had made wishes on years before. The next scene shows George and Mary helping Mr. and Mrs. Martini move into their own home in Bailey Park. George’s old friend Sam Wainwright and his wife are passing through town in their fancy car, on their way to vacation in Florida. Sam reminds Mary that he offered George to join him in plastics but George stuck with the loan company. Sam drives off and George returns to work but kicks the door of his old car shut. The viewer knows that George’s choices have had a price. Mary is slowly fixing up the old house and George is slowly helping others have a better life but it might have been otherwise.
Advent 2 focuses on PEACE. George is learning to make peace with the choices he has made, not by focusing on what might have been but by staying focused on the blessings of the present. When Sam arrived in town and greeted George from across the street, George was helping Mr. Martini move from his old place under Potter into his new home. Mary, wisely says under her breath, “ignore him, George.” Mary hands Mrs. Martini a loaf of bread praying that the new home never knows hunger, salt that the home may always have flavor, and George gives a bottle of wine for joy. George’s dream of building homes that bless people is beginning to come true although not as he had dreamed as a youth and George is finding peace in the present.
If you could choose a symbol to represent sufficiency and not hunger, what would you choose? What do you think of for giving flavor to life? Can you think of a moment of joy that blessed your life? Focusing on the blessings of what has been and not what might have been is part of the secret of find peace. Lord, Help us focus on our blessings and not our “might-have-beens.”
On the Way to Wonder 