“Find a need and Fill it” is an old saying in the advertising business. That’s what the Hallmark channel did a few years ago when it launched their formula happily ever after movies. They scattered a few here and there and, eureka, their viewership increased. Now it is the only movies they present.

The past several years Christmas movies have started long before Thanksgiving. Actually, Hallmark presented Christmas movies the entire month of July, they are still the same stories the Hallmark channel carries all year long. We live in a maze of dreams fulfilled where Cinderella always marries Prince Charming. And he is charming and loyal and has a castle and all the gold he can spend, and they live happily ever after in their fantastic castle.

And even more interesting is another advertising adage that says if you study the shows people are watching on television you will discover their basic needs. If that is true, by Hallmark channel statistics, it appears we have many people in our country who want and long for a peaceful and happy world without strife. Now the past few months I’ve noticed other channels are following Hallmark’s lead and adding a few feel-good movies to their lineup of programs. They are testing the waters to see if they can get the same viewership as Hallmark.

Hallmark channel movies always end happy and usually with a kiss; no quarrels, no lost presents, no disasters, no over-sugared children, no exploding water pipes, no ovens that quit heating leaving the ham and turkey raw when it’s for dinner, no disasters. In the movies, everything get fixed or cooked just in the nick of time.

We can go into a Cinderella Coma watching the happily ever after movies. There’s something very calming and comforting about them. The stories are always positive and hopeful and free of the combative people we generally see on television, a safe haven for those weary of violence and arguments and biased viewpoints churned out by the news media.

Maybe that’s why we watch the feel good movies…

Most of you know my mind runs amuck at times and it just ran smack into news, politics and the media. Oh, dear, I promised myself I would not get into that so I’ll just ask one question and you can form your own conclusions. Have you been watching less and less news and flipping on a feel-good program more this past year?

I know I am watching Hallmark movies more than I used to and it is because they never depress me. However, at times I do wonder if they don’t set the bar so far out of reach that life becomes disappointing—because after the movie ends, we come back to the imperfect world.

But, maybe we all just need to escape the world for 90 minutes…

It’s the new take on the Happily Ever After fairy tales of our youth—and wouldn’t we love to live that dream. That’s what we expected as children, that’s what every human being wants, it’s the eternal search for happiness. But somehow, life generally falls short of the movies, and we know something is missing. Hmmm…

We all seek to find something that doesn’t exist in this world.  Everyone has times when dreams come true, but reality dictates it won’t exist forever. So many issues cannot be resolved or changed, sickness happens, and the death of loved ones leaves us alone and in pain.

And I long to change or fix all that…
My nitpicky mind says the only thing I can realistically change is me…
My attitude, my words, and my reactions to events that happen that I don’t like…

I can let the world’s news upset me, or I can focus on the good in my life…
I can make peace within myself and where I am in life, in spite of the problems…
And I can choose joy with my Lord, my family and the people that fill my life…
It’s a choice.

Sigh…but something is still missing…

After all is said and done, isn’t Happily Ever After what the Lord Almighty promises all who believe in His son, Jesus Christ. A place where we will see our loved ones again, where illness and pain and death don’t exist, where conflicts are no more, and where the Lord is King.

In the midst of movies and news and shopping and Black Friday specials and rain and snow and ovens that die and pipes that burst and pain and illness and death, I need to remember that Happily Ever After hasn’t come—yet.

Jesus Christ said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3

So flip to a Christmas Hallmark movie and enjoy the quaint beauty of the little towns, watch the problems dissolve, and see Prince Charming kiss Cinderella, and smile…

Remembering…
We’re not home yet…
Jesus is coming back to take us to our new home.
And the best is yet to come…

 The miracle of Christmas is the real Happily Ever After