We all get used to the way things are,
The rising sun and the falling star,
Each day the same as the day before,
Rarely noticing anything more.
But then all at once the winds can turn,
Leaving us with new lessons to learn.
Oh, there will be problems as we travel on,
And there will be mountains to climb.
But it’s always darkest before the dawn,
And morning always shows up right on time.
Morning always shows up right on time.
—“MORNING” BY KATHIE LEE GIFFORD
I have two very dear friends known separately as SQuire and Louise but now known as SQuise in my family. Louise DuArt has always been an entertainer and comedian. SQuire Rushnell was an executive at Good Morning America in the ’70s and ’80s but in recent years has become a highly successful producer and author of a series of books called Godwinks. The books contain true stories of peoples’ experiences with what appear initially to be coincidences but in reality are moments in time when the divine aligns with the human. When God is “winking” in our lives. Interestingly, in the Hebrew language there is no word for “coincidence” because there is no such thing. Sovereign God is either truly sovereign in all things or not God at all.
Several years ago, we began featuring these Godwink stories on TODAY. They were highly rated segments, so SQuise and I took the concept to Hallmark.
It took three years to get our deal done. Initially there was concern that an audience would be offended by the faith element, but I knew there was potentially a huge viewership just dying for wholesome, true, faith-based movies that gave them hope. We convinced Hallmark to try one and find out.
SQuise and I filmed the first movie, A Godwink Christmas, in Vancouver. It is based on the romantic love story of the real inn owners of the Charlotte Inn, located on the elegant island of Martha’s Vineyard. My character was the determined aunt from the neighboring island of Nantucket who is right in the thick of getting the couple together. (It was fun taking my acting chops out of the mothballs again!) The movie was top-rated for the network and was voted by fans as their favorite inspirational Hallmark movie of the 2018 holiday season.
In 2019 we filmed A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love. In this inspiring true story an amazing Godwink brought together a sweet couple, Alice and Jack, who both had given up on love. As Alice’s mom, Olga, my character was the encouraging yet feisty matriarch, right in the middle of it all. IMDb called the film one of the ten best Hallmark movies of the last decade—again setting record ratings. We’re currently writing our third Hallmark script, A Godwink Christmas: Second Chances, and are hoping to start making these films year-round, not just for Christmas.
Before our films released, we’d been told that the word God had never before in television history been used in the title of any movie. Besides making great movies we were also making a little history!
SQuise and I are grateful that God would wink at us with these stories and opportunities. It’s been a Godwink to work with them but also to discover a brand-new audience waiting to be found.