The Gift We All Need

Christmas is coming to Mayberry and, with it, a strong spirit of good will.  Andy rationalizes a rubric for releasing his prisoners for the holiday, comparing it to students leaving school for Christmas vacation.  The jail is empty and hearts are full as they prepare for a Christmas Eve celebration, that is until Ben Weaver stomps into the courthouse with Sam Muggins, a Mayberry citizen Ben has caught making moonshine.  Ben’s not concerned that Sam might be drinking on Christmas Eve, just that he's missing out on the money he would make if Sam bought his alcohol from Ben’s store.  Ben stubbornly demands that Sam be locked up, even on Christmas Eve.  He promises to cause trouble for Andy if he doesn’t keep Sam in stir for the season.  

When Ben returns to check on Andy’s law enforcement, he finds that Andy has “arrested” Sam’s wife and children and brought them to the jail.  Andy has also sworn in several additional “deputies” to guard these dangerous outlaws.  Actually, of course, Andy was reuniting the Muggins family for Christmas and had moved the Christmas party to the courthouse. 

 Ben, of course, protests these developments, but can’t help but be attracted to the celebration, the good news, the happy gathering he finds in the courthouse.  He wants to join the festivities but doesn’t know how.  He only knows how to make an entrance by stirring up trouble.  The only part Ben knows how to play in life’s story is that of a Christmas scoffing Scrooge. 

 Though Ben has succeeded in putting Sam Muggins in jail, Ben is the one imprisoned, not by iron bars and locked doors, but by his loneliness.  He’s locked outside the season, unable to share its joy and love with others.  He sings the words of “Away in a Manger” looking in through the bars that lock him out of the joy of Christmas. 

 How many people learn a bad way to belong?  In one of my first ministry jobs, I had a coworker who stayed in trouble with his supervisors and fellow workers.  Our boss described him as a man who would run over people while driving the ambulance to the scene of an accident.  He didn’t want to be in trouble.  He just didn’t know any other way to get people’s attention.  He’d rather stay in hot water than be ignored. 

 Wise man that he is, Andy finally realizes what Ben is actually wanting to accomplish through all his cantankerous shenanigans and agrees to lock him up for his “crimes.”  Andy is going to find a way to make a place for Ben at the party.  He’s not going to leave him standing in the cold outside of Christmas.  I wonder how many lonely Bens get left in the alley. 

 Before Andy brings Ben to jail, he allows him to stop by his store to pick up some items he will need while serving his sentence.  When he opens his suitcase, it is, in fact, filled with gifts he wants to share gladly with everyone gathered in the courthouse.  Ben had a lot to give, but couldn’t until someone saw through his scowl and gave him a chance. 

 A chance.  That’s the gift Ben Weaver received that Christmas Eve.  It’s the gift every person needs and deserves.  Let’s put it at the top of our Christmas list.

 Footnote: This is the only holiday episode in the eight-year run of The Andy Griffith Show.  If you don’t believe in Christmas magic, watch Barney closely while he opens and reads his card from Hilda Mae.  It changes from one card to another, right before your eyes. 

Messages from Mayberry is my collection of spiritual life lessons drawn from my twenty-five favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.  Click here to learn more about it.