Images of Advent from the Silver Screen December 13

 December 13

Polar Express

 

“On Christmas Eve many years ago I laid quietly in my bed. I did not rustle the sheets, I breathed slowly and silently. I was listening for a sound I was afraid I’d never hear: the sound of Santa’s sleigh bells.”

Thus begins The Polar Express.I’ve loved this magical film since it premiered in 2004, with its singing waiters, cynical hobo, and careening train cars heading towards Glacier Gulch. With Tom Hanks in multiple roles (hero boy, father, conductor, hobo, Scrooge and Santa), the film is a marvel of spirit, character and animation. 

As the conductor reminded the children, “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.” As I hear his words, I am reminded of similar words that I’ve repeated so often over the years, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

As the hero boy concludes his story-telling, he says this: “At one time most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I’ve grown old the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.”

This film taps into something within us that longs to hear that bell, to see with the heart. Yet all too often we are Thomas with the risen Christ, demanding to see what we cannot, to touch what we cannot. Yet in the sound of the bell, in the silence of the night, and in the care of each other, once again we listen, we hear, and we believe.

 

Then Jesus told him,“You believe because you have seen me. 

Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

John 20:29 (NLT)