Movie Moments

Maybe I’ve been watching too many Christmas movies… Okay, I retract. I definitely have been watching too many Christmas movies. It’s like an addiction! The weird movie moments are starting to get in my brain.

Some movie moments from the weekend: Darkness had already fallen. Christmas lights were twinkling in the streets. Snowflakes began to fall as we walked up Main Street. And then, soft music is heard. A brass band was playing on a nearby balcony. Movie moment. Jingle bells are ringing. A horse-drawn carriage clatters by. Movie moment. A children’s choir sings Christmas carols softly on the courthouse steps. Surrounded by a small-town crowd. Listening the speech of an elderly mayor. Movie moment. Twirling a little girl around in the middle of a busy gym. Holding a tiny hand as a little one reaches up to drop coins in a red kettle. Standing transfixed by a beautiful photograph. Daydreaming in a museum about an Underground Railroad station. Breathing in spicy cinnamon and lavender and pine—lovely seasonal scents. Shimmering ornaments and fresh holly and white Christmas lights that remind me of the night sky. Movie moments. An anonymous gift left on my desk at church. I read and smiled. Movie moment. Voices raised in joyful singing, “Hark, the herald angels sing!!…” Movie moment.

And now I will squash all the nostalgic fuzzy feelings that you had from this post. Haha. Just stay with me... I've been considering the common themes of Christmas movies. They're all magical and about love and forgiveness and miracles and things that only happen in Christmastime. Which is fine. But I'm not satisfied with nice feelings for 10 minutes during some perfect moment in a movie. Those feelings don't last. Unless there is peace in the presence of God, my soul will remain in turmoil long after the movie ends. I want to know/feel/experience peace all the time.

The truth is that even if all family relationships are healed and I receive that gifts I want for Christmas and someone proposes to me on Christmas (no, I'm not asking for that... It just seems to be a common movie theme. I'm making a point!), my soul would not be at rest. Only peace with God through Christ is the answer.