When I say A Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas movie and in my top ten of favorite books, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve seen every film adaption, ranging from black-and-white to the Muppets. I own the book and read it every year.

I speak the truth when I say it is a favorite.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, it centers around a greedy, miserly, old businessman named Ebenezer Scrooge. One Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner and three Spirits that use the past, present, and future to warn Scrooge of what lies ahead for him if he does not change his ways.

I know what you’re asking: “But why this “A Christmas Carol”, Lauren? It’s so bleak and foreboding! Why do you think that is the best Christmas tale when there’s so many other funnier, happier ones?”

My dear friends, A Christmas Carol is the story of the redeemed Christian. It is my story.

While we celebrate Christmas to remember the entrance of Jesus into our world, A Christmas Carol is the sequel to the story. The “what’s next” after the birth of Christ in Christmas and his death/resurrection in Easter.

Let me explain: the story opens up on a man who has it all. He’s rich, prestigious, and successful in his chosen craft. Yet, he is so engrossed in the world he has created, he is resistant to giving up anything that might take away from the life he has worked so hard to create. Why spend money on gifts and food when it can be saved and invested? Why spend time with others when that time could be used elsewhere and with a more visible profit?

“Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man’s pockets.”

Then, on Christmas Eve night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his business partner (and the closest thing he could call to a friend), Jacob Marley. From the other side of the grave, Marley laments his wasted life and warns Scrooge of his doom should he not change his heart.

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” 

Scrooge is afraid, but hardly persuaded by the apparition’s foreboding news.

Then, the next night, the Spirit of Christmas Past visits Scrooge. The Spirit shows Scrooge moments from his childhood and young adulthood, from times at school to his apprenticeship. While there is joy in the memories, the pain of an unloving father, lost sister, and unloved fiancé is recalled.

“You fear the world too much,’ she answered gently. ‘All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?” 

After being shown these forgotten memories, Scrooge asks to be taken away, but the Spirit reminds him that even if unshown, the past, and the truth it contains, lives. Scrooge tries to extinguish the Spirit and awakes back in his room, alone.

How much are we like Scrooge in this? Have you ever traced back your choices, especially the most pivotal, back to the effects of your home-life and the relationships you invested your time in? Did the consequences of those choices cause you pain or pleasure? Did they change you into someone you wanted to be or into the duplication of someone you never wanted to become? Are you glad you made the choices you did or, if given the chance, would you choose a different path?

I have made bad choices and I have made good ones. I have made choices that helped and others that hurt. I have made choices, like Scrooge, that, upon revisitation, have brought back both joy and regret. The best choice I’ve made, however, was to follow Jesus. Though I made the initial choice to follow Him at a young age, it’s in the daily choosing to continue following that I find the most joy. It is through recognizing my past, riddled with selfishness, pride, greed, lust, and the like, that I am able to look to Him to strengthen me in changing me now and, thus, change my future.

The past isn’t obligated to define who we are or the choices we make, but if we bury it and refuse to see how it has affected and continues to affect us, we will never learn from it and will continue blindly and bitterly, just like Ebenezer Scrooge.

If you enjoyed this, stay tuned! Tomorrow, we can together explore how the Spirit of Christmas Present both affected Scrooge and mirrors how the Present affects the redeemed Christian.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!