Week 51 – December 15-21, 2024: Do You Believe?

This week’s daily readings:

December 15-21, 2024

This week’s devotional:

Do You Believe?

by Nicholas Ambrose

Scripture:

What do you want me to do for you? “Lord I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”

— Luke 18:41-42

Reflection:

Christmastime is the season to believe, and what could encapsulate this theme better than the much-beloved movie “The Polar Express!” It starts off with a boy in his bed on Christmas Eve. He hears something downstairs and goes down expecting to see Santa Claus but is disappointed to realize it was just his dad wearing a Santa hat carrying his sister on his shoulders. He then runs upstairs to investigate online whether or not Santa is real, and the evidence points to him being a fraud. He goes back to bed but is soon woken up by the thundering sound of a train coming right down his street! Hoping to find out what’s going on, he rushes outside and meets the conductor who tells him this train is “The Polar Express,” headed for the North Pole to see Santa! 

At first, he doesn’t board the train, but his curiosity wins out and he runs aboard at the last second. He makes some friends on the train and, on his adventure to meet Santa, he struggles in his doubts to believe whether Santa is even real. Throughout the movie, Christmas bells are ringing, but the boy can’t hear them. 

When the boy and his friends finally get to the North Pole, they are about to see Santa give the first gift of Christmas out to one special child, but the boy still can’t hear the bells. A bell flies off of one of Santa’s reindeer and lands right near the boy’s feet. He picks it up and rings it hoping to finally hear its sweet sound, and desperately says, “I believe!” Once he says those words, he can finally hear it ring! Santa picks him to receive the first gift of Christmas, and all of his doubts fade away as the boy finally sees the big man face to face. The boy asks to be given the bell as the first gift of Christmas, and as the train is leaving, he realizes he has lost the bell. 

When he comes home and wakes up on Christmas morning, the last gift he opens is the bell. He’s relieved to know he can hear it ring and so can his sister, but his parents cannot. The movie ends with the boy telling us how, over the years, all of his friends and even his sister lost the ability to hear the bell ring, but he can still hear it. He ends by saying, “the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.” 

This beloved movie has many parallels to the story we find ourselves at in the Gospel of Luke. A blind man cries out to Jesus to be given his sight. And just as Santa asks the boy what he wants for Christmas, Jesus asks the blind man what he wants from him. The man asks to see, and his faith allows him to receive his sight from Jesus. This story really shows the power of faith. The blind man had never seen Jesus before, but he had heard of him and who he was. Even though he couldn’t see Jesus, he knew he had the power to heal him, and that was enough.

Prayer: 

Dear Gracious God, though we cannot see you, we have faith in you. You have promised that all who have faith in you will be saved and will receive their sight. So, help us, Lord Jesus! Help us to hear your voice in our lives, just as the boy finally heard those bells ring. Let us be the people who can confidently say, “I believe!” We ask in his powerful name. Amen