It's a Heavenly Life

It’s a Heavenly Life

Some interns working in the cavernous film depository of a Hollywood studio (Qumran Pictures) recently discovered a canister of celluloid containing a scene for the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Stored in a clay pot of dead cinema scrolls, the reel of black-and-white footage was found to be in excellent condition despite its being over 66 years old. According to film historians, this never-publicly-viewed scene was left out of the movie because it was judged to be “too religious.”

The scene comes toward the end of the movie when George Bailey, in despair over losing a large sum of money, considers ending his life by jumping off a bridge into the icy river below. In the released version, George’s guardian angel Clarence, working to earn a pair of wings, attempts to convince George that his existence has been worthwhile by showing him what life would have been like without him. But in this newly-discovered scene, Clarence is replaced by the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah and the water-walking Jesus who find themselves with a hopeless George in the cozy bridgekeeper’s cabin having the following conversation:

George: Who . . . who are you?

Jeremiah: I’m Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.

Jesus: I Am. But you can just call me Jesus.

George: Wh . . . where did you come from? H . . . h . . . how did you get here?

Jeremiah: A rather anxious colleague of ours, Clarence, called us and said you could use some help. He thought we might be able to relate to you being as how we’re all eldest sons who followed our fathers into the prophet-making business. I understand your old man was a banker? Mine was a priest. Need I say who his father is?

Jesus: Now, now, Jeremiah.

[to George]: Don’t mind him—he’s never forgiven the kings of Judah for disobeying my daddy’s commands. Actually I don’t think he’s ever quite forgiven my daddy for sending him to them in the first place. To tell the truth—my job basically—we were sent by Daddy through Clarence.

George: Holy c . . . I mean, Jee . . . I mean . . . You mean, God sent you, both of you, to me?! I don’t remember this being in the script!

Jesus: It’s in the scriptures, remember? I became flesh and lived among you, and I continue to be with you.

George: Well, gosh, Jesus, I don’t want to put you out. Surely there are other people who need you more than I do . . . I mean, there’s a war going on, people are still recovering from the Depression . . . .

Jeremiah: That’s what I said, but we both figured you’re more likely to listen to us than any of the world or national leaders do—we’ve seen “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Plus millions of people watch this movie year after year. If only we’d had cinema in the good ole days, I wouldn’t have had to go around personally demonstrating all the time—breaking clay pots as a metaphor for God’s wrath, wearing a yoke to symbolize the Hebrew nation of Judah’s servitude under the foreign nation of Babylon—one sign after another. The headaches I suffered from giving visions to a people who refused to see!

Jesus: Okay, Jeremiah, that’s enough. George, we’re here for you. We know you’re depressed about losing some money. We also sense your deep regret over what you had to do and didn’t get to do in your life: Taking on the Savings and Loan and not going to college, staying in Bedford Falls and never making it to Europe. Your burdens multiplied, and your dreams sank. Believe me, I understand what it’s like to have your life taken away.

George: I tell you, I want to do the right thing. It’s just . . . the right thing never seems to happen. I remember the prayer you taught us, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I guess I don’t see things happening here on earth like they do in heaven, not that I’ve ever been to heaven . . . .

Jesus: But that’s just it, George, you have. You were born there, along with everyone else. God created you to live on earth, yes, but with the memory of heaven always present, especially on earth, since the beginning—including your beginning.

Jeremiah: If I may add something here, George, before God formed you in the womb—and this goes for everybody—God knew us. Before we were born, God consecrated us. You’re a Presbyterian, George, surely you believe in predestination?

George: You call that a wonderful life?! God deciding before I’m even hatched that I’m going to head a measly, no-count S&L in nowheresville?! Why couldn’t God at least have let me get an Accounting degree, something to assist me in my work?!

Jesus: But George, God gave you more than enough to help your work, as well as enhance your whole life. God gives to each and every one of us a heart to love with, a mind to be curious with, a soul to risk with, and a body to do our best with.

George: Well, I often feel my heart desires one thing, my mind is curious about another, my soul—I don’t know where it is—and my body . . . why, I’ve never liked my body! I’ve always wanted a body like Cary Grant or Gregory Peck. Instead I got this ole skinny bag of bones.

Jeremiah: At least your world is confined to a nice community, and your nation isn’t going under. Sure, your uncle has some problems—whose uncle doesn’t? But just wait until you hear about my life, and then you’ll appreciate real troubles!

Jesus [to Jeremiah]: Why does everyone have to have a messiah complex? Don’t you realize I came once and for all so that no one has to bear that cross again? Burdens are heavy enough without using them to keep score.

[to George]: I know this is only a movie, but it’s your life. I once revealed to Shakespeare that “All the world’s a stage” and, by God, the dramas—“only plays”—became gospel. You too can trust God is directing your life—your individual performance—to dramatize good news. And you know what good news is, don’t you, George? Look in your pocket, George, go on, check your pocket.

George: Zuzu’s petals?

Jesus: That’s right, George, Zuzu’s petals.

Jeremiah: Hold on, Jesus, are you referring to that sappy scene where Zuzu asks her father to reattach the petals of her rose—only he secretly stuffs the petals in his pocket?! Isn’t it condescending to use a simple trick played on a mere child as a metaphor for the meaning of life in a complex and hurtful world?

Jesus:  It’s not about when George puts the petals in his pocket. It’s when he takes them out. Remember, George has just seen what life would have been like without him: Bedford Falls is now Pottersville, his mother is an unhappy widow, his wife Mary is a homely librarian, and all his favorite haunts are alien to him. Like us, he came to his own home, and his own people did not accept him. So in despair George heads to the river—

Jeremiah [interrupting]: Just like at the beginning of the movie. Are you saying, it doesn’t matter whether someone exists or not, life still ends in tragedy?! I believe it, but it’s hardly good news.

Jesus: George, tell us, what happens when you head to the river?

George: Well, I’m frantic, really desperate! I want so badly to be a part of life again—my real life, that is. But there’s no way because I don’t exist!

Jesus: And then what happens, George?

George: And then I reach into my pocket and there . . . there are Zuzu’s petals. I start to cry. I’m alive! In this life!

Jesus: That’s grace, George. And then?

George: And then I feel for that scratch on my mouth, and I taste blood, and . . . and I know it’s really me. Blood, tears, this heart and mind and soul and body of mine—this is who I am!

Jesus: You’ve received grace upon grace, George. Whenever we feel trapped or abandoned or like it’s all over for us, our instinct is to head to the river. It’s more than an instinct, though, George. When we’re tired of living a lie and we’re dying for the truth, our spirits are drawn to living water.

Jeremiah: I got it! O God, I don’t know how to say it, for I am only a child . . . a mere child—

Jesus: But God said . . .

Jeremiah: But God said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am only a child,’ for you shall go to whomever I send you to, and you shall speak whatever I tell you to speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you.”

Jesus: Live in truth, not in fear. So, who wants to tell their story first?