Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s the time of year for Christmas…and holiday-themed movies. Though one might divide these into religious and secular, a number of the latter contain hidden messages that one can find a connection to a Biblical story or lesson.

My all-time favorite Christmas flick (pun intended) is “A Christmas Story.” In the story, Ralphie pursues getting a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas with unbridled passion, reminiscent of Jesus’ message from Matthew Chapter 13, Verses 44-46, where a merchant sells everything for a valuable pearl, or a man sells everything to buy a field with a treasure beneath the land.

Ralphie is blocked by parents, teachers and even Santa, who all offer the counterargument “You’ll shoot your eye out.” There’s plenty of humor, but probably a moment or two you might have missed, where little Ralphie gets something more than a firearm. At his low point, Ralphie gets a bad grade on his Christmas Theme about the BB gun. He gets a snowball in the face from two local bullies. But it’s his mother who comes to rescue after the fight, distracts his dad from learning what happened to Ralphie’s broken glasses. “Things were different between my mom and me after that,” Ralphie muses. His father also produces the desired gift, hidden in a corner.

If you watch the sequels, the gun is barely mentioned. But that closer bond between Ralphie and his parents is clearly there in the other two movies. Similarly, Jesus wasn’t referring to an actual pearl, treasure or field, but something more important than anything you can take a photo of.

It’s a similar story in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” where Clark Griswold is trying for a perfect Christmas, with a huge tree that breaks things in the house. He invites relatives to visit but ignores them in favor of having the most Christmas lights on a house in Chicago. The unattended guests fall asleep in front of the television. It’s a bit like the story of Martha and Mary in the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 10), where one sister pays attention to Jesus, while the other sister spends her time cleaning and cooking, ignoring her guest, even demanding her sister leave Jesus to do housework. Jesus tells Martha that interacting with others matters more.

But by the end, Clark seems to get it, desiring a pool less for the cute salesgirl in the mall than a chance to fly up the family for a summer get-together, with extra from his Christmas bonus.

And who can forget “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Even if you haven’t seen the film, you know that the ever-helpful George Bailey feels like a failure at his low point, and faces jail through no misdeed of his own. He tells an angel that he wishes he had never been born.

It may surprise you that in the Old Testament, the great prophet Elijah does a similar thing. After his great triumph over the priests of Ba’al, he is driven into the wilderness by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, feeling abandoned by all. In the 1 Kings, Chapter 19, Elijah is under a Broom Tree, praying he would die. “I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Elijah doesn’t feel that any of his work made any difference in anyone’s life.

But God has plans for Elijah, just as George Bailey is about to see his fortunes change after deciding he really made a difference through his kindness and good deeds, and he misses his family and friends. Elijah is about to realize he does have powerful allies on Earth, new leadership, and another prophet (Elisha) to assist him.

The messages are clear. Sometimes the best presents aren’t found under a tree. There’s value in personal connections even over the perfect house for guests. And when we feel we’re at our low point, God is still there, and that we have more people to assist us in the tough times than we think. Maybe this Christmas, we might be the very people sent to ease another’s burden.