Santa...a tale of terror

I shared on this blog last year about how our youngest daughter developed a fear of Santa. In reality it was more than just a fear. She was terrified. She was so terrified that simply driving by the mall caused her to be gripped with fear to the point of being petrified. Well another year has gone by and I was preparing for another season of trying to minimize the impact of Santa on our Christmas celebrations. As Santa began to appear in advertising and on T.V. a strange thing was happening. My daughter was not crying or running out of the room. My daughter had made peace with Santa and declared that she "didn't hate Santa anymore" with a face that showed just how proud she was for making this step and maturing into a big girl. Times had changed...that was until we were at an event where Santa made a live appearance. We had warned her that he was coming but she insisted that everything was fine. We noticed, however, that as the time of his visit approached, she became quieter, she edged ever closer to her mother, squeezed her mother's hand ever tighter and began to dawn that petrified demeanor that we were used to seeing. Seeing him on T.V. was one thing, but as it turns out she still has a definite fear of Santa Claus. She approached him to receive a gift (with her mother close to her side) and when he asked if she was going to come and sit on his knee she politely replied "No thank you, I don't like you."
This ongoing saga has caused me to think about Santa a bit differently, to consider our Christmas traditions in a new light and has challenged me to celebrate a bit differently. This year I was thinking about the origins of our Santa Claus. I don't need to get into the whole history, and by simply googling it yourself you can find lots of information. One common feature found in almost all histories is a connection back to the historical person of St. Nicholas. The history of St. Nicholas itself is a bit clouded by myth and legend and hard to figure out but there were a few facts that seem fairly certain and worth mentioning.

1) St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myrna and was present at the Counsel of Nicaea in the year 325 AD. It was at this counsel that leaders in the Christian church worked through intense theological concepts. It was from this counsel that much of how we understand and express some of our theology such as the Trinity derived. The Nicaean creed comes from this counsel. He was deeply concerned and involved in theology.
2) He seems to have had very wealthy parents who died when he was young, leaving him great wealth. He took the word of Jesus to sell everything and give to the poor quite literally and he used his whole inheritance to support the poor and needy.
3) Under the emperor Diocletian persecution against Christians broke out. He was persecuted, exiled and imprisoned for the faith.

I don't know how much our current image of Santa brings to mind such things as theology and Truth, sacrificial giving and persecution for the faith, but I will be thinking about these things this year, and what that may mean for me.

What I Want for Christmas

I have been thinking about sacrificial giving a lot lately mostly from my own discipleship and reading and confirmed by events around me. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom to many (Matthew 20:28), so the life of someone claiming to follow Him must also reflect this. As I have been thinking about giving I have had a couple of organizations come to my heart that I would love to be giving more financially to support. Realistically, however, after regular giving and tithing (non-negotiable for us) and then everyday needs there isn't much left over. All this means that if I still want to give financially to these organizations I will need to be creative...so this is what I have come up with.
Even though I don't have a lot of extra to give, I know that Christmas is coming up. I know that there will be some people thinking about what to get me. So, I have decided that what I am asking for for Christmas is that a donation be given to two organizations that mean a lot to me. Now I hesitated to even post this blog because I don't want it to seem like I am showing off or making this about me. Really though, anyone reading this blog is probably family (hey mom, hey dad) or friends, so what a better way to let everyone know :)
This year I am asking people to consider either giving to the research of Liam's neurosurgeon Dr. Singh at McMaster Children's Hospital, to the Brain Tumour Foundation or both! They both have been amazing to us over this past year and they continue to do amazing work to support those with brain tumours and help find a cure.

Donations for Dr. Singh can be made to the following:

Support for Dr. Sheila Singh
Fund # 1237

Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation
40 Wellington St. N.
Hamilton, ON
L8N 3M8

or go online to:

Hamilton Health Science Foundation

Information about supporting the Brain Tumour Foundation can be found at their web site:

www.braintumour.ca

Thanks!

Liam's One Year Anniversary

It seems so hard to believe, but this past week marks the one year anniversary of Liam's two surgeries to remove the tumor in his brain. To look at him today you could hardly tell that he had ever been through something so serious. There is so much that I could reflect upon, share and write about but I have decided to share one of the songs that I wrote instead. It shares a bit of what I was reflecting on shortly after our experience. It is called Immanuel and you can get to it by clicking the link below:

Immanuel

To read more about Liam's journey, or some thoughts about the anniversary you can check out my wife's blog:

zoo-ology

Shine Your Light Event

Well, this past Saturday marked our third annual "Shine Your Light" event. Each year for Halloween, we try to take advantage of the one evening a year where our whole community comes right to our front door. Our worship team sets up in my garaged and out onto the driveway and we play Halloween, television and movie theme songs. While the band plays, other family members and friends hand out hot chocolate to parents, candy bags with scripture to the kids and have lots of conversations with the neighbours who hang around for the festivities. It has been a great chance to meet my community and build some bridges with the neighbours around me.
I have been thinking back to all the great costumes that members of our group came up with, the work they put in to making it happen, the talents they shared from cooking a meal to designing the scripture tag etc. not to mention the night of music. It has got me thinking about just how much I appreciate this group I am a part of. This group is made up of our worship band from church and their families. We get together each week to share a meal, study scripture and share our lives and practice music. We learn together, share with each other, support each other and serve together. I am grateful for a group with whom to share this, and for an introvert like myself that is saying a lot! To me it is a glimpse at what the church is supposed to be, learning, sharing, growing ans serving together. I can look back at my spiritual life and clearly recognize that the most fruitful times of my life have been when I have been a part of such a group. We are not perfect...not by any stretch of the imagination (after all I am a part of the group!) but still, there is something significant about having such an experience.
Often I hear from people that you can be a "Christian" without going to church or without being part of a spiritual community. My response to that is twofold - firstly, in my experience a spiritual community has been extremely important for my spiritual walk. From the experience and wisdom I have gleaned to the support in very difficult times, I can't imagine life without it. Secondly, I think of the words of Jesus himself. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35) Jesus was talking with his disciples and so taken in context we can recognize that Jesus was saying that to be a disciple we must be loving other disciples. It was both Jesus' intention and command that we would be in community with other disciples (how else could we live out the command?). To try to be a follower without being in community would be both outside of His intention as well as disobedient, at which point we would have to ask ourselves are we really trying to be disciples? The flip side, however, is that there is an incredible richness to life lived according to Jesus' intentions and in obedience to His commands, which has been my privilege to experience.
So thanks to my spiritual family for all that you do and for sharing your lives with me. We love all that we get to share with you!