Why Do I Keep Watching Hallmark?
I am a sucker for decorations and lights, near catastrophes, and life-giving choices. And that is why I have watched way-too-many Hallmark Christmas movies. They are so predictable: A frustrated, overworked city dweller returns home, helps with a small-town crisis, averts said crisis, falls back in love (and out and in again) with a local (the two knew each other as children), decides to settle down in the small town. Each story ends in a kiss or a dance or a wedding—or even all three. Did I mention that variations include prince, a Santa, or a new Christmas song?
According to Nielson TV Ratings, during the holiday season, over eighty million people watch at least some portion of a Hallmark Christmas show. Why the broad appeal of these cookie-cutter movies? My answer is that these movies are unintentional parables/microcosms pointing toward the true and ultimate biblical story of love and joy and ceremony. The biblical love story introduces us to:
· Preoccupied (should we say sinful) dwellers in the city (as opposed to God’s garden)
· Who return home (to their heavenly Father) because their lives are in crisis, they heed the gospel call, and surprisingly become the Bride.
· This Bride falls for the Bridegroom, who, after the dwellers have suffered a while, will not only avert all crises but also rebuild the garden, transforming it far beyond its original status.
· This Bridegroom is a Prince from a far country, a better Giver than Santa, and the deserving Recipient of a more than one new song.
· And the union of the transformed Bride and the perfect Bridegroom results in a wedding, one anticipated from all eternity.
You think I am stretching the point? Well, consider these three verses:
· Isaiah 62: 4-5:
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you . . . and your land shall be married.
. . . as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.
· Revelation 19:7:
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready.
· Revelation 21:2:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
A Divine Wedding in coming. Hallmark movies touch us as they speak to our deepest hopes and longings. We want our work to have purpose, bringing about real change and real value. We want to be beautiful inside and out. We look for the One who will make sense of all we experience, who will answer all our dreams. So, I will keep watching the Hallmark movies (after all, the Valentines’ ones are now coming out), shaking my head at the predictable—and often improbable—plots. I will do so not to lionize small towns, first loves, or quick reversals (usually in the last five minutes of the show). I will, instead, anticipate the Bridegroom: “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come” (Rev. 22:17).
