“I Choose You” Is the Godly Marriage Vow

Letter to Romans: “The Family Man” may not be a Christmas Classic, but it nails nonetheless Christ’s message of redemption for those who CHOOSE to be born again & how that free will CHOICE applies especially to a faithful marriage ala Joseph & Mary.

Not to give the plot away for those who have yet to see it, “The Family Man” playing now on Prime Video is obviously based largely on “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It panders to woke Hollywood’s efforts to de-Christianize Christmas by giving the “Angel Clarence” role to a Somalian-looking punk with a New York Jewish accent. Yet, the George Bailey character played convincingly by Nicolas Cage unmistakenly reveals another idealistic do-gooder who doesn’t realize his ironic obsession with worldly success has led to a personal “identity” crisis in his life. The Angel or Somalian mystic or Jewish magician “rewards” Cage for a dangerously unselfish act during a store robbery with a ”glimpse” of how his life made a wrong turn 10 years earlier. That’s when he had naively told his soulmate, an aspiring not-for-profit lawyer played by Tea Leoni, to wait for him to get married while he pursues a lucrative career in high finance. Leoni has a dark premonition about the parting & asks Cage to stay home with her so they can start their life, humble though it may be. “I choose you,” she tells him to no avail.

What follows in Cage’s suddenly topsy turvy life is arguably not only a marvelous lesson in those things that are truly important in anyone’s life, but how important it is for us beings to choose them wisely. This is not only true in following God’s Will for us, but right down to the very human need we invariably have to choose a soulmate who will live life with us for better or worse, until death do we part. Not unlike the love story between Joseph & Mary, in which Mary chose to accept God’s miraculous favor, despite the mighty dangers involved, and Joseph likewise chose to be stepfather to the King of Kings, based on an enduring faith in Mary as well as in God.

Davd Soul