Scrooge is changed because he sees children in a new light, joining in their celebration and pitying their suffering. The latter was especially significant for Charles Dickens, who himself felt compassion for the plight of poor children, in part because he himself had once been in their shoes.
Children do have way of thawing icy hearts. I've seen this especially in men who are trapped in their inexpressive machismo until they become fathers. All of a sudden tenderness flows from their hearts, as if by magic. Or, to cite another example, I think of how the presence of children can bring joy to senior adults in a convalescent home.
Of course it doesn't always work this way. Sometimes cranky people are made even crankier by the noisy gladness of children. So there's no guarantee that exposure to children will work positive change in people.
Transformation is a result of seeing with a fresh perspective.
Part of what altered Gabriel Grub was the beating he took from the goblins. They literally knocked some sense into him. Scrooge, on the contrary, experiences no physical pummeling from the spirits who visit him. They work their wonders simply by showing Scrooge scenes of Christmas past, present, and future. This enables Scrooge to see life from a fresh perspective, and as a result he resolves to become a changed man.
Part of what Scrooge saw wasn't new. In fact, it was his own past. Yet he was seeing from the perspective of an outsider, and this altered his vision. Part of what Scrooge saw was new to him. For example, prior to his travels with the Ghost of Christmas Present he had never observed the Cratchit family's Christmas celebrations, so joyful even though so humble.
It seems clear that Dickens believed in the transforming power of a fresh perspective. He wrote A Christmas Carol not only because he needed additional income, but also and especially because he wanted people to experience the joy of Christmas, and especially the joy that comes from generosity, both in giving and in receiving. Dickens hoped that his little book would function in the lives of his readers much as the spirits functioned in the life of Ebenezer Scrooge. There is ample evidence that his hopes have been fulfilled thousands if not millions of times over since 1843.
I've also witnessed the power of a fresh perspective to change lives. For example, in the past few years several hundred people from my church have gone to a small community in northern Mexico called El Niño in order to assist the poor who live there. When they return, they often see life differently and act differently too. They see in a new way, for example, how richly blessed they are financially, and resolve to give much more away to those who are not so blessed.
Transformation requires supernatural help.
There's no question that Ebenezer Scrooge needed supernatural assistance in order to change his ways. Apart from Jacob Marley's intervention, Scrooge would have continued to forge for himself a hellishly-long chain which he'd be forced to drag about for eternity. Yet because the spirit of his former partner interrupted Scrooge and sent the three Christmas spirits, Scrooge's life is renewed.
I'm not enough of an expert on Dickens to know whether he would agree with the claim that transformation requires supernatural help. Though he was a theist of sorts, Dickens didn't share many of my Christian convictions. He may have believed that literature, unaided by spirits of any kind, was powerful enough to effect change in the Ebenezer Scrooges of this world. Nevertheless, I believe that profound, lasting human transformation does indeed require supernatural assistance, namely that of the Holy Spirit.
The good news for those of us who are in need of transformation, and to some extent that means all of us, is that God's Spirit is in the renewal and reformation business. According to the New Testament, the Holy Spirit "gives life," offers "renewal," and leads us into "new life" (2 Cor. 3:6; Titus 3:5; Rom. 7:6). The Spirit draws us to confess Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3), and then empowers us to live in a whole new way (Rom. 8). The Spirit of God also helps us to see with fresh perspective, opening our minds and touching our hearts. And, unlike the spirits in A Christmas Carol, this Spirit doesn't disappear at the stroke of midnight. Though I'm quite sure it wasn't Dickens's intended purpose, my reading of A Christmas Carol produces in me an enhanced desire and a more fervent resolve to live this life less by my own strength and more by the power of God's Spirit. In this way, my own "Scroogishness" might be transformed, by God's grace.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In