Ground Hog Day

photo credit: Miguel Teirlinck via Unsplash

In 1993 the film “Groundhog Day” played in movie theaters around the nation. If you know the story, then you know that Phil the weatherman is dispatched to Punxsutawney, PA to broadcast the weather report from the center of Groundhog Day celebrations.
 
But Phil the weatherman gets caught in a time loop, endlessly repeating Groundhog Day over and over and over again with the same things happening over and over and – you guessed it – over again. At first he thinks only of himself and rearranges his routine for his own benefit. But then something unexpected happens: he is awakened to the fruitlessness of a self-centered life, and a transformation takes place. He begins thinking of others and serving others.
 
Whether they knew it or not, those filmmakers took a page right out of the Bible. Actually they helped themselves to many pages (but the Lord doesn’t mind). They took that Bible page that tells us it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
 
They borrowed that Bible page that teaches us to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13). They helped themselves to that page of the Bible that speaks to us of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
 
And they took seconds on that Bible page that calls us to love another: “God sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins; since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God’s love is made perfect in us” (I John 4:7-10).
 
So, for Groundhog Day this year, take a page from the movie “Groundhog Day,” and help yourself to as many Bible pages as you can. God Bless and Be with you this Groundhog Day and all the other February days too,
--Pastor Tom