You See George

"You see George, you really had a wonderful life."
"Strange isn't it? One man's life affects so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"  ~ Clarence


I love the perspective "It's a Wonderful Life" brings.The reminder that we each have been given a great gift. The gift of life. We have also been given the gift of choice on how to spend our lives. A blessing with a great responsibility attached to it. 


The new year is a wonderful time for me. It allows me to evaluate and come up with new year's goals. Even if they are never fully accomplished there are great plans in the works as a new year rolls around. There are ups and downs in a year. I don't know that there are ever years that are fully up which is probably a good thing because the down side would be sure to come and it would not be fun. The ups provide the spice of life. The downs often provide perspective and fresh reminders of what we are truly here to do, Who we are here to serve. 


As I think of the new year with all its prospects and reflect on the ideas in the movie mentioned above, my mind drifts back to George's statement to Clarence after deciding that suicide probably wasn't his best option he said, "I suppose I wish I had never been born." As the movie plays on George is given the gift of seeing the impact he made on others. How even though life didn't go the way he had hoped and dreamed, it went how it needed to go. Not to say that we shouldn't have hopes and dreams, just that maybe sometimes when they don't work out it doesn't  necessarily mean we failed but that there was possibly a different plan for our lives, a better one. 


We really are given a gift of life. A gift that so many have not been given. What will we do with this year? Will we make great and daring plans even though we might fail? Will we wish we had never been born, regretting the gift I'm sure many would have liked to have been given? Will we just let life happen because we're too scared to try to do great things? The choice is ours.


"But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands." ~Isaiah 37:8