The heart has its reasons which reason does not know - It's a Wonderful Life.

        The movie It's A Wonderful Life is more than Christmas classic. It is about the human spirit, the goodness of human nature, of value, of hope, of love, of compassion, a message for all times. a timeless spiritual and cultural experience.

        George Bailey's problems so overwhelmed him and he is contemplating suicide until heaven sent down an angel, Clarence, to help him see his life in the proper prospective.
How so many people love him and how his life has made a difference to so many people.

        In flashback, George's life from boyhood: how he saved his younger brother from drowning, going deaf in one ear as a result; his childhood sweetheart Mary, how he prevented the druggist Mr. Gower, whom making a fatal mistake.
How George had to give up his college, to take over the building and loan to keep it away from old man Potter, the richest and meanest man in town.

        George marries Mary, and on their honeymoon George has to use the money to save his bank from a run.
The years pass and George and Mary renovate a dilapidated old house to live in and raise a family of four children.
George, never making much money but helping numerous people in the town buy homes.

        World War II comes George is rejected due to his bad ear. His brother Karns, however, becomes a Navy pilot whose heroics save a U.S. troopship, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.

        On Christmas Eve, Karns is to be decorated at the White House, a picture shown boldly on the front page of the Bedford Falls newspaper. Unfortunately, uncle Billie shows Potter the paper (with $8,000 in building and loan funds fell in Potter's lap, Potter hides it while giving back the paper).
Potter keeps the money, and says nothing. George begins to panic, knowing the missing funds could mean a jail term. He goes to Potter and asks for a loan, but Potter only taunts him, then tells him he's going to call the authorities.

        A bank examiner has arrived to go over the books. Completely depressed, George wanders home then leaves, heading off for the saloon.
It is than that George utters his prayer for help that is heard up above, and heads for the river, convinced he'd be better off dead.

        Clarence Oddbody, AS-2 (angel, second class, hasn't earned his wings yet). Jumps in the water and cries for kelp. George leaps into the water and pulls him to safety.
When Clarence points out that George's death wouldn't solve any problems George agrees, noting that it would be much better if he'd never been born.
That inspires Clarence and, after checking with his heavenly guidance, he grants George's wish.

        Clarence takes him on a journey showing him what the world would be like if George had never been born.
He finds that his brother died in a childhood because George wasn't there to save him; as a result, his brother never grew up to be a hero, saving all the lives of the men on the naval transport. They all died.
George was not around to stop the druggist's poison prescription; a boy died and Gower went to prison.

        Bedford Falls is now Pottersville, a slum filled with crime, bucket-of-blood bars, and pawn shops, where drunks and prostitutes roam the streets.
Billy tried to run the building and loan and went insane when it folded. His mother has had to subsist on a meager income running a boarding house.
George, terrified finds Mary an old maid librarian, but she doesn't recognize him.

        Standing on the bridge, George begs for Clarence
"to get me back, get me back! I want to live again."
He has again lost the ability to hear in one ear, and now realizes that things are back to normal.
Joyous he heads back to town, ecstatically greeting every familiar face and sight in Bedford Falls.

        Back home, George bursts through the door of his house to blissfully embrace his children. In the parlor waits the dour bank examiner and the local sheriff. George greets them with a wide smile, saying: "Isn't it wonderful I'm going to jail!" But George does not go to jail.
Mary runs into the house and into George's arms. All his depositors, friends, and relatives are flooding into his home and once they learned George was in trouble. They begin to empty their pockets into a large basket, thousands of dollars, in gratitude for what George and his company have done in enriching their lives.

        A wire arrives in which old friend Sam Wainwright, now a millionaire manufacturer, states that he has made $25,000 available to George. The sheriff tears up his warrant and even the bank examiner contributes.
Karns toasts George: "To my big brother George, the richest man in Bedford Falls." All burst into "Old Lang Syne." Someone or something brushes the Christmas tree next to George, Mary and their children, and the bells on the branches tinkle. The youngest Bailey held in George's arms, says:

        "Look, daddy, teacher says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." George grins broadly and says: "That's right, that's right."
George looks upward and gives a wink, saying: "Attaboy, Clarence."