Ghosts of Christmas Past
A Christmas Carol…what a wonderful story. I can’t speak for anyone else, but out of all of the Christmas specials and stories, that one makes me feel the Christmas-iest. Written by Charles Dickens and published in 1843, it is so Christmas-y, that it wasn’t until after its publication that people began to commonly celebrate Christmas as a festive holiday.
We all know the story, I think. But just in case:
It’s about a nasty, stingy, old geezer named Ebenezer Scrooge who has disdain for every human being on the planet. He treats his only employee, Bob Cratchit, like dirt and refuses to have anything to do with his only remaining family member, his nephew, Fred. One Christmas Eve, his plans of sitting in his room alone, eating gruel, and going to bed mad at the world, are interrupted when he is visited by four ghosts: his former business partner–Jacob Marley, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge’s ghostly visitors take him on a journey that will alter the remainder of his days. He enters his home on Christmas Eve as a surly, old miser and emerges on Christmas Day, a changed man; he buys a huge turkey for the Cratchits to cook for Christmas dinner. He then goes to Fred’s Christmas party and makes merry with Fred and the party guests. Over time, he becomes close to the Cratchit family and eventually ends up being the reason that their sickly boy, Tiny Tim, lives.
It’s a beautiful tale with a joyful ending, and while the spectral visits are the obvious reason for the happy ending, I think the Cratchits, along with Fred and his family, affect the story’s outcome just as much as Scrooge and his ghosts do. Why is their role just as important as the ghosts? Because they forgave Scrooge and gave him a second chance.
Imagine how the story would have ended if, when Scrooge tried to make amends, Bob Cratchit had told him, “Take this job and shove it,” and if Fred had said, “Go home, old man. You had your chance.” We’ve all probably read the book or seen different versions of the movie many times, but how many of us have considered the importance of forgiveness in the story? Without forgiveness, the story would have left us feeling as jolly as we felt during Titanic while we watched Jack descend into the icy-cold North Atlantic. Just as forgiveness was crucial for a happy ending in A Christmas Carol, it’s also a crucial element for real-life happy endings.
When someone has wronged us, we may hesitate to forgive them unless they are remorseful and attempt to make amends. But there are times when a person may not even be aware that they’ve hurt us; and sometimes, they know what they’ve done but just don’t care. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard not to hold a grudge against the ones who don’t care. The problem is, when we insist on carrying that grudge around, it weighs us down as heavily as Marley’s chains weighed on him.
Forgiveness frees us of those chains. Getting rid of anger and bitterness makes room in our hearts for things like joy, love, and peace. I’m not suggesting that when someone mistreats us, we should rush out and buy them a Christmas turkey or invite them over to share our plum pudding; not every situation calls for second chances and not every person belongs in our lives. What I am suggesting is that regardless of whether or not we choose to give someone a second chance, we should always choose to forgive…not for them, but for ourselves.
For many years, having no idea that I was only hurting myself, I refused to forgive people who I felt weren’t deserving of it. It wasn’t until I finally let go of those grudges that I was able to receive tranquility and happiness. In fact, I truly believe that forgiveness played a major role in my efforts to get (and stay) sober.
I realize that forgiving a Scrooge is easier said than done. Often, we don’t feel very forgiving towards someone. We don’t feel like the person deserves our forgiveness (and there are times that they probably don’t). Forgive anyway. Forgive so that you can be free of those chains that are weighing you down and keeping you from moving about weightlessly in the present and traveling unfettered into the future. Forgive–because if you don’t, you’ll find yourself forever haunted by those ghosts of the past and your heart will be so full of bitterness that there’ll be no room for the good things that are here in the present and yet to come.