(If you’d like to read the other days, you can do so by clicking here. Don’t forget I’m making a playlist in Spotify as we go through this series, you can subscribe to here.)
We’re taking a little turn away from the road we’ve been traveling the past couple of days, and turn down a different track. And that was my horrible pun and transition into talking about “Believe” from “The Polar Express.”
My reason for selecting this song is because of the movie. I may be a little biased because both of my sons love trains, movies about trains and this movie. Regardless of my bias, I too love this movie and think it has become another Christmas Classic. My wife read the book to her class before it was ever made into a movie (of course – she’s probably tell you they ruined it as all books ruin movies), so we felt a connection with the story from the beginning.
Believe
The song, performed by Josh Groban, was written by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri. It was written for the movie, and was quite a success. The song won a Grammy and received a nomination for an Oscar and Golden Globe.
However, what I think caused the song to be so successful was that it encapsulated so well the feeling and content of the movie. The emotion of the movie is wrapped up in the song, and the content of the song very appropriately encourages the listener to believe.
We’re reminded:
“At one time most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I’ve grown old the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.”
Maybe if we just believed, we too could experience the miracle of Christmas.
