December 8, 2024
I read something this week that I found interesting so I thought I would share it with you. Do you know what is significant about the number 80,213,066? Spelled out, that is eighty million, two hundred thirteen thousand, sixty-six. Perhaps that’s the number of times your mother told you no when you were growing up. Maybe that is how many times your husband has walked across your freshly mopped kitchen floor before it was dry or how many times your kids asked you the question why! All those reasons aside, what is significant about this number is that it tells us how much money was spent at the box office on Christmas Day 2017. That dollar amount is pre-covid and no matter how you cut the cake, that’s a lot of money! Here is a deeper question. Why would so many people spend so much money in one day at the movies? Deeper still, why would people spend so much money at the movies on a religious holiday of all days? While there are probably many reasons that could be given, the bottom line is, we humans like a good story. We especially like a good story at Christmas time. I mean, who couldn’t like a story about a cop surprising his estranged wife at her company Christmas party, which is being held in a skyscraper, Nakatomi Plaza, in Los Angeles. The cop is the one who is surprised however because just as he arrives, Nakatomi Plaza is taken over by terrorists. The cop (played by Bruce Willis) spends the rest of the movie thwarting the bad guys at every turn. Finally, in the greatest scene ever filmed in Hollywood, we get to see the leader of the terrorists (played by Alan Rickman, the greatest movie bad guy of all time) fall backward to his death, face toward us as he falls, with the greatest expression ever, to the cold, hard, L.A. concrete. Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, a real “feel good” masterpiece. Do you know what is sad? Most of the people spending so much money looking for a feel-good story on Christmas day miss the greatest feel-good story of all. The story told in the gospels, the story of Emanuel, God with us, is the greatest feel-good story ever told, and it is non-fiction! I grew up reading Captain America comic books. Forget Superman and Batman, Captain America is the guy. Comic books and movies aside, the real superhero, the true Savior of the human race, is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. As we travel deeper into this advent season, remember, God’s Messiah is on the way. Why settle for anything less?
Be blessed and then go be a blessing . . . Bro Andy
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