Childhood Favorites by Susan L.

  I needed to take some downtime last night from frantic, anxiety building Christmas preparations. I thought I'd search online for some sort of animated movie to watch. I enjoy them immensely. My son rolls his eyes at me and says my DVD collection should belong to a nine year old boy!  
  My hunt led me to two of my childhood favorites, stories that have stayed with me all of my life.  They had been Christmas specials when I was a child but had disappeared into thin air. Someone had posted them on YouTube a couple of years ago much to my delight!
  Both of them are stories by Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant. They were both produced in the early seventies. The colour has faded a bit, but the artwork is stunning.
  I figured out why they were no longer put on TV. Both are terribly politically incorrect. Unless you are a Christian. Which is too bad because they are stories about love; about caring for those less fortunate. I don't want to reveal too much but they depict God's and Jesus' love for Their most precious possessions: us. Both are tales of redemption, God's greatest gift.
  My reaction to the shows was just as I remembered. My heart was filled a child's gratitude that there was a Something, a Someone much bigger than I watching over me. An ache filled my adult heart that once again drove home the fact that even though I lost sight of my Maker for a long, long time, He has never lost sight of me.
 The nights as a child when a swallow's death made me weep, when I would sing myself to sleep with the lullaby/prayer, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know" have been honoured. A thousand fold.
  "And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world." Jn 12:47