If You Just Believe…

If You Just Believe…

(from December 13, 2008)

Each of us have heard it over and over again that Christmas is such a wonderful time of year…but in reality it is not for many people. The joy and the merriment, the parties and the gifts, the lights and the sounds all ring hollow…or don’t ring at all…

I just finished watching The Polar Express with my youngest daughter. Ok…actually I put it on so I could get a few things done while she was occupied.

But I did sit down to watch just as Santa entered the courtyard to the throng of cheers and well wishes of thousands of elves and a couple dozen lucky children. Each child was there because this was their pivotal year. A year in which they began to doubt in the spirit of Christmas.

One boy in particular is so skeptical. He wants to believe but his mind tells him better. That is, until a bell drops off one of the reindeer, tumbles to his feet, and comes to rest. He picks it up and shakes it…

No sound…nothing…he shakes harder…still nothing…

He closes his eyes. Hoping beyond all hope. Mutters the words, “I believe” and shakes again…

Harder and harder he hopes…chanting those words…until finally the silence all around him is broken with crisp clean notes coming from that bell and the voice of Santa asking him what he had just said.

“I believe…I believe…I believe,” he repeats and then hands the bell back to its rightful owner.

Santa then proceeds to address the children…giving them wise words of instruction. Words that inspire hope. Until he chooses who gets to receive the first gift of Christmas.

The child who just began believing climbs into the sleigh, onto Santa’s lap, and proceeds to tell him what he would like…he would like the bell. The very bell that rang so crisp and true at the exact moment that his belief became a reality.

The bell is given to the boy and Santa proceeds to talk about how the bell, and himself, are wonderful symbols of the spirit of Christmas. Then the best line of the whole movie is uttered as Santa tells the young boy, “Just remember the true spirit of Christmas lies within your heart!”

That is so true…the true spirit of Christmas lies within each and everyone of our hearts.

The parallels in this movie, and the story that it tells, comes right from the heart of the very first gift of Christmas…

Around 2000 years ago that gift came. Dressed as a baby in swaddling clothes, lying in a manager, humble, susceptable, fragile, and full of hope.

The Christ of Christmas was born.

Today we dress the holiday up with the joy and the merryment, the parties and the gifts, the lights and the sounds. But again it can all ring hollow…or not ring at all…if you don’t believe.

“Just remember the true spirit of Christmas lies within your heart.”

Is it there this Christmas?

Do you believe in Christ?

In the movie the boy goes back home, carrying his belief with him…He is woken up by his little sister the next morning, wondering if all of it has just been a dream. He goes to his robe and checks for the bell…not there. It was all just a dream until they find a small present under the tree. He opens it and there is the bell…he shakes it and it rings. His sister shakes it and it rings. His parents shake it and it doesn’t ring. They think it is broken.

When it comes to believing in Christ. It is one thing to say that you believe, but until you put “feet” to that belief nothing is real. You need to shake it and test it…

There is more to loving Christ than just believing in him. With Christ belief becomes an action verb. There is a change of life, a change of behavior, and change of attitude, a change of motivations, a change of…

As the boy was getting off the train at his home. The conductor tells him that the thing about trains is that it doesn’t matter where they are going…it is deciding to get on.

It is the same thing with Christ. He will take you to some incredible places. It doesn’t matter where. What matters is to get on.

At the very end of the movie a now grown up boy narrates, “At one time most of his friends could hear the bell but as years passed it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah (his sister) found one Christmas she could no long hear its sweet sound. Though I have grown old the bell still rings true for me as for all that still truly believe.”

Believe and get on…find the true spirit of Christmas…and hold onto Him…believe

Does the bell ring for you?

Until next time…

Pastor Barry