Is The Polar Express Really About Belief in God?
By: Frank William Brennan
Tags: Doubt, Christmas, Faith, Holidays, God

Christmas

Is The Polar Express Really About Belief in God?

Imagine this. The main character of the film is a stand-in for each of us. He once believed in the Eternal, but only as a child. He is growing weary, becoming skeptical and suspicious of the mystery of Christmas, particularly in Santa Clause. He is lacking belief.

Santa is a metaphor for God. Children who believe in Santa practice a form of faith, yet lose that it to discover that Santa is fictitious. Is this what has happened to God? By making God one Being among many, He has become as fictitious as Santa? Kids pick up on that.

Yet God cannot be one Being among many, else He would be in competition with humanity like the Greek Gods os mythology.

In this film, there is clearly a deeper spiritual mottivation. The boy is humanity; immature and unbelieving.

When our doubts arise, we are invited on a journey. We are not shown spiritual truths objectively. Senses are deceiving. Yet we are called to journey towards the truth.

Do we dare to step on the train?

This is what the Polar Express offers us, a journey towards Truth.

Who do we find on this journey? Other souls just like us. Some annoying, some kind, some doubtful and fearful, but all searchers.

We also meet the original Doubter on this path, the Evil One. Here he is in the form of a ghost, questioning the boys belief in “the Big Guy.” At times he taunts him for his unbelief as he taunts us.

On the train, the boy almost falls off, but the “stranger” saves him. Why? Because a soul that doubts is better than a soul that departs. Satan would rather keep us in our unbelief, a similar scene can be found in the movie “Constantine.”

What happens when we come face to face with God? Just like the boy, we can’t see him right away. We are shortened by our doubt, silenced through our fear, and deaf through our unbelief. As the boy rings the bell, he cannot hear it. He doesn’t truly believe.

Yet, there is a desperation in our hearts. A yearning that we can’t silence, an unquenchable thirst. We want to call out. We want to believe. We need to believe. It seems real.

Then, in our desperation, He comes to us. We go on this journey. We keep faith hidden in our hearts. We desire for it to be true. That’s when He arrives.

He arrives to gift us. What does the boy ask for? He asks for the bell, a symbol of faith. For him it is proof of the existence of this celestial person, proof that he was there, proof that it is real.

Yet, God knows very well that seeing is not believing. So what does He do. He removes the proof. The boy loses the bell. Does he doubt again? Will he wake up tomorrow and believe it was all a dream?

No. The boy makes a firm decision to believe it was real, God does exist, despite any physical evidence.

Then when he no longer needs it, the gift of faith is returned. So powerful this time that even when all of his friends no longer hear the bell’s sweet melody, even his innocent little sister would fall away from God, his faith is matured. The bell still rings for him as it does for all who truly believe.

Rewatch the film through this lens and I think you will be pleasantly surprised by this odd, yet modern holiday classic.