Reflections of Colossians in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This past Sunday morning, I spoke to the Sunday school class concerning chapter three, verse twelve from the book of Colossians. Throughout the week, I had read, mediated, and reflected upon this powerful letter to the Colossians. So, as is my pattern, on Sunday morning, I did not review the materials; the matter was already set in my head. But for this particular lesson, God had a special message from Saturday's newspaper: a message from a lady in York, SC, and a book called "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

On a typical Sunday, I arise early, spend some time in prayer, read a special promise that I am currently claiming from Psalms 43, and then prepare for church. I'm quick, so I usually finish early and have half-an-hour before my wife and her mother are ready to travel. I usually spend the free time glancing through the Sunday morning paper.

This week, due to having Christmas-company all the day Saturday, I had not yet read Saturday's paper. So, rather than walking a quarter-mile down to the road front, I pulled up at the kitchen table with the Saturday news in my hand. For some reason, I turned to the viewpoint section. This is not my typical pattern.

I read an article by a guest columnist named Kay Mcspadden. She was writing about two books with different approaches to the same question. One of the books was "A Christmas Carol". In the article, she posted a mixture of personal injections, alone with quotes from that famous Charles Dickens book:

"'You were always a good man of business,' Scrooge says, hoping to flatter the frightening apparition. ‘Business!' Marley yells. ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business,'" The Charlotte Observer, Saturday, December 18th.

What a wonderful fit to my planned message. Read here, and compare the above words of Charles Dickens to the scripture as it reads in Colossians:

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful," (Colossians 3:12-15).

As I read those words taken from "A Christmas Carol", I perceived a great loss in this modern world. We have become so overwhelmed by the wicked things that come at us through media, television, radio, and even kid's comic books, that we can barely see the good things that sometimes get wiggled in. Charles Dickens wrote a clean, morally enlightening, and Christian focused story. In this modern world, there are some who would take the gentle truths within it, and pervert them by injecting realistic "so-called" language. For those so blind and troubled, I sorrow. There are others who will grasp, through the words of Charles Dickens, a Christian principle of life and love and mercy.

As intelligent beings, we have the freedom to receive from this world the things that are clean and pure, or the things that are foul and wicked. There are books, magazines, movies, and all the more that seek to corrupt and destroy our mind and soul. There are also books, magazines, and movies that seek to open our hearts to God's will and God's truth. We decide what to let in and how to apply it.

"'Business!' Marley yells. ‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.'"

I ask you now: what is your business?