A Week of Joy: Saved by a chainsaw

Last night Mr. Fixit and I watched the first-season Alf Christmas episode, "O Tannerbaum." Alf, not used to Earth holiday customs, helpfully chops the Tanners' Christmas tree into firewood, so he and Willie set off to the Angeles National Forest to look for another one. Things get worse and worse, the car gets stuck in the mud, and there's nobody around for miles. Alf says they should have a car phone like Sonny Crockett, which Willie says is about as realistic as flying out of the forest--this is 1986, remember?

While Willie dozes off, Alf leaves the car, cuts down a tree with a chainsaw, and stuffs it in the back seat. Which gets the attention of a forest ranger real fast. Result: large fine, expensive tow and all the rest, but at least they don't have to spend Christmas in the forest. And they get to keep the tree.

Somewhere in there, there's a message about messing things up, and how all our efforts sometimes make things worse. But sometimes our desperate attempts turn out to be a cry for help in the right direction.

As George Bailey also found out.

 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8, ESV)

And we still get to keep the tree.