Last nights show of Scrooge at The Palladium was a great performance. We left knowing that we had seen one of the ‘masters’ of the stage perform. Tommy Steele was superb and could still hold the notes despite his age – but I guess that is true professionalism.

The Christmas Carol story is well known, and there were no surprises in the performance, apart from me seeing or noticing things differently from before.

At the end of the show, Scrooge sees the error of his ways and buys presents, goes to the family party, promises a doctor for Tiny Tim and so on. A poignant moment for me came next when he started to cancel the debts of people who owed him as ‘my Christmas present to you’.

The reaction of the people was jubilation and breaking into song of ‘That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me’. The party started and people could not believe what Scrooge was doing. He used words along the lines of ‘I have forgiven you, your debt has been cancelled’.

The heart of the reason for the change in Scrooge was a reminder and realisation that he liked life. He had spent years trying to fool himself that he did not, maybe even trying to protect himself from emotion and vulnerability. In the end, however, he remembered – he actually enjoyed living. When he realised that, he was able to use his wealth to bless others.

The enthusiasm shown should be echoed by the enthusiasm shown in church at what Jesus has done. The sheer disbelief of these people should be see in our churches as they are amazed as tehy contemplate the debt they have had cancelled.

I have visited a lot of churches recently, and a number have been full of the most joyless people I could imagine – not all by any means, but easily the majority. IN fact the atmosphere was so bad and cold in one, that I did not stay for the whole service! People were not joyful, people did not seem that excited by the fact that Jesus had cancelled their debts, that they had been forgiven – that they had received a Christmas present from God himself, in the shape of the Christ child. An amazing present. No better present. WE could certainly sing ‘That’s the nicest thing …’

Maybe as church we need to re-capture that enthusiasm that we originally had when we realised what Jesus had cancelled for us, what he had paid for us, what his gift to us actually is. Maybe if we managed to do that, and managed to live a great and thankful life now, remembering that we can love life now and that it is not all about stuff after we die – then maybe, just maybe, a few more people might be interested in this Jesus who made a difference to our lives.

Jesus told us he came so that we could have life to the full (John 10:10). I’m making a big guess here, but I reckon he was talking about life in the present sense. It is true that we will live in paradise, but I also believe it to be true that Jesus wants us to live fully here, on earth, in the present as well.

Now … that is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.