2 Corinthians 5:7 – For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Long before the train steamed across a screen, The Polar Express started, like most Christmas miracles do, with a fantastic idea.
Robert Zemeckis sat with a small picture book in his hands. The story was simple. It told of a boy, a train, and a journey toward belief. But something about it stirred him.
The world had changed since the book’s release in the ’80s. People were busier, louder, and more skeptical. Yet the story felt timeless. He wanted to bring that sense of childlike wonder to life again.
But here was the problem: the short picture book was barely thirty pages long, and its magic wasn’t in its words so much as its feeling. How do you film that? How do you make the world believe in Christmas again?
He didn’t have all the answers. But he knew he had to try.
Zemeckis brought in Tom Hanks, and together they dreamed up something new: not a cartoon, not quite live action, but a film that would feel like stepping into a dream.
The process was long and strange. There were no snowy sets or glittering trains. Just imagination. The voice actors performed scenes without props and pretended to feel the cold, to see the stars, and to hear the bells. This required something deeper than skill. It required belief.
And maybe that’s why the film still feels different.
The people who made it believed before they could see. They worked for years to make sure the snow fell just right, the train’s whistle sounded authentic, and the boy’s wonder felt real.
When the film finally arrived, children leaned forward in their seats, and adults sat still as they remembered what it felt like to hope for something unseen.
That’s the sound of The Polar Express. It’s a reminder of a deeper truth: that faith has always been the bridge between what is seen and what is true.
God calls us to that same kind of belief. He asks us to trust what our eyes can’t yet see, to hold fast to the hope that He is real, and that He keeps His promises. As the Bible says in 2 Corinthians, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
You see, He is not Santa or a train that comes rumbling through the snow. He is infinitely more. And even when life feels quiet and uncertain, He is still moving toward us, whispering through the stillness, and inviting us to believe.
Maybe this Christmas, that’s the journey worth taking—not to the North Pole, but toward the Christ who came to rescue and redeem.
So listen again for the sound of hope in the cold night air, and remember that the most extraordinary things begin when we dare to believe in the unseen.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
- Where in your life is God asking you to move forward even though you don’t see the full path yet?
- What keeps you from trusting God when the outcome is uncertain—fear, doubt, disappointment, past experience?
- Think of a time when you stepped out in faith. What did you learn about God’s character through that experience?
- How can you cultivate childlike wonder—like the boy on the train—amid the busyness and noise of the season?
- What “small yes” might God be inviting you to offer today, even before you see how it all fits together?
- How might you encourage someone else who is struggling to believe in what they cannot yet see?