A pleasure at any time, not just Christmas.
The works of Charles Dickens have had a profound effect on my writing, and not only A Christmas Carol. Every Christmas season there are always different renderings of this classic, in which Scrooge is transformed into a loving, generous soul overnight.
A Tale of Two Cities is another Dickens story which always reminds me of the Lord’s appeal to lay down one’s life: no greater love has this, to lay down one’s life for another. Instead of upon a cross, Sydney Carton sacrifices his life on the knife blade’s edge of a guillotine in revolutionary France in late 1700’s. And he showed no hesitation or regret as he declared, “It is far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
And this familiar quote is bookended with the equally well known opening line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Dickens’ method of comparing and contrasting attracted me. I observed, in serious Bible study later in life, that Proverbs, Psalms, Old Testament prophets, and the Apostle John, constantly apply this ‘night and day’, ’black and white’ analysis technique. A prime example 1 John 5: 12: “He who has the SON has the life: he who does NOT have the SON of GOD does NOT have the life.”
Now, do a side by side unbiased examination, of the inane babbling in the tabloids, or a worn out old glossy “People Magazine” lying on a table in your dentist’s office, as the whine of a drill, whittles away tooth decay! Worse still is the gravitational pull of this drivel, to entice readers to conform more and more with Galatians 5: 19-21: blatant carnality, immorality, idolatry, envy, etc.
In Dickens, on the other hand, one can rise into orbit, with fantastic GPS coordinates accumulating Galatians 5:22-23 attributes, where the ETERNAL payoffs will be manifest forever and ever.
Choose today which kind of fare thou carest to feast yer peepers on, dear readers and listeners!
As the kiddies and I sang out, on many a VBS (vacation Bible schools sing-a-thang) “OH, be careful, little eyes what you see…and hear, and say, and do, and go, and trust, and think”
Delving into the works of Charles Dickens will bring the reward of reading pleasure and moral clarity.
