How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of my favorite movies of all time. The old psychedelic 1960’s cartoon Grinch movie, I mean. I used to watch it with my dad every Christmas and still watch it every year. It’s bright and funny and mushy and full of a faithful dog named Max. What more could you want?

Something this year while watching the Grinch made me stop and think. He had a pretty cool cave. Nice location, good view, minimalist décor, what more could you want from a cave? Maybe that’s the introvert in me talking.

But aside from its great resale value, that cave represents something else. It’s a place of loneliness, of isolation. The place of a person who looks at others around him and withdraws into his own place of protection. Sometimes a cave is more than just a place to live.

Do you have a ‘cave’ like that? A place inside you where you don’t want to let anyone in? A place where others aren’t welcome and you feel like you’re on the outside?

I think we all have places like that in our lives. Heart spaces that most people don’t know about because we keep them hidden. Places where we feel insecure, lonely, angry, forgotten. Those kinds of caves can be dark and huge and hard to climb out of.

But you know what? That’s not the only kind of cave there is. Sometimes a cave is a place of hope. The prophet Elijah spent time in a cave but it was a very different experience. Both Elijah and the Grinch were trying to escape something. The Grinch wanted to escape people he didn’t understand, Elijah was running from people who wanted to kill him.

Elijah has been running from Jezebel into the desert. There he was sustained by God until he was strong enough to journey again. 1 Kings 19:9-18 tells us that he went to Horeb, the mountain where God had established a covenant with his people and spent the night in a cave there.

Elijah’s cave was a place where he went to meet God. In the midst of his trouble, he went to a place where he could listen to God, to hear His truth and feel His love. And God spoke to him, comforted him, and gave him courage to move forward into what God had for him to do.

Another thing about caves? We can’t stay in them forever.

After his time with God, God sent Elijah to find Elisha, his future apprentice and person who would help him in his ministry.

And the Grinch? When he came out of his cave, he discovered community and family. He discovered that the lies he was believing about himself and others weren’t true, and it changed his life. He was connected and cared for.

So, whatever the caves in our lives, we have a choice. Do we offer that space up to God or do we let them stay dark? And after we meet him there, we come out and find others that he’s set on the path of mission with us.

Caves can be lonely or they can be places where we’re transformed. Which do you choose?