Naughty or Nice?

Naughty or Nice?

“He knows when you’ve been sleeping. 

He knows when you’re awake. 

He knows if you’ve been bad or good, 

so be good, for goodness’ sake.”

(lyrics to "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," copyright expired)

That sounds a little scary, doesn’t it? You’d better watch out! Christmas is coming, and it sounds like someone is watching you.

For generations, parents have cautioned children with these words. Better behave, or Santa might stick coal in your stocking when he creeps into the house while the family sleeps.

Is this fantasy fun or frightening?

As a parent, I confess I have helped to perpetuate this play at Christmas.

I’ve even left red flannel scraps on the fireplace grate to show my kids how Santa must have torn his britches on the way up the chimney. (Here's the story in rhyme: Just Be-Claus - a Rhyming Trick on Old St. Nick .)

I have jingled carriage bells up and down the stairs on Christmas Eve, just in case the children are still awake.

Five Tips for Making Santa More Real to Children

Christmas is delightful for so many reasons.

Of course, the primary focus is the Babe in the manger, born to die to save the world from sin. On bended knee, we sing beloved carols to worship the Light of the Word, born into a frail human body in Bethlehem under the brightest star.

Santa Claus, commemorating a generous old country saint, reminds us all of the joy of giving.

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Does the promise of presents lead to improved conduct?

I have to wonder. Can anyone really be bribed into better behavior or scared into submission? Does the fear of possibly losing a prize (or a Christmas stocking bulging with bounty) actually serve as an incentive for children of any age to obey parents?

On a grander scale, does the offer of eternal reward incite us to follow God more closely? Can we become more devoted to the Divine One, simply by focusing on a payoff someday in Heaven (see Revelation 22:12)?

Maybe that’s not what it’s all about.

Again, we make it all about ourselves, if we focus on rewards or what we may receive.

I have often wondered about this. Sure, folks love to talk about heavenly paybacks, as if God owed us something for serving Him or for putting up with difficulties in this life.

A woman I know has lived with a particularly surly husband for more than six decades. He grumbles and growls over nearly everything, and she quietly bears most of this personally.

She has been nice, even when he has been naughty.

“That saintly woman will have dozens of jewels in her crown in Heaven someday,” folks will say about this lady. 

Perhaps she will. Bully for her, if God does honor her that way for her longsuffering with surly spouse.

The Bible does say believers will be honored in eternity for faithfulness now. It also says none of us even deserve entry to everlasting life.

“All have sinned 

and fall short of the glory of God.”

(Revelation 3:23, NIV)

So we’re all naughty. If the Lord played by Santa’s standards, we’d all get coal in our stockings, if we got stockings at all.

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But God can make us nice. Because of the Christmas Child, who grew up to pay our penalty on Calvary’s cross, the Father regards us as redeemed and welcomes us home to be with Him.

What’s more, when we arrive in eternity, instead of recounting our missteps, He blesses us for what few moments of obedience we may have enjoyed. He rewards our faithfulness.

But you know what I think will happen in Heaven?

I don’t know about you, but I am guessing that I will likely fall face-down at the first glimpse of the Holy One. Rewards won’t matter much, in the light of His full revealed glory.

Even the holiest ones will prostrate themselves before the King of Kings and lay their crowns at His feet to praise Him.

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
   and by your will they were created
   and have their being.”

(Revelation 4:11, NIV)

Hallelujah to the Holy One, who transforms naughty to nice, remorse to redemption, disobedience to delight, and pain to promise.

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Meat-Eaters' Manger: Mockery or Merriment?

Meat-Eaters' Manger: Mockery or Merriment?

Have you seen the pork nativity scene? Christmas carnivores may find this fabulously fun. Others may sizzle with righteous indignation.

This bacon-lover’s delight first appeared last November. (If you know who first made this complex carnivorous concoction, please say so in a comment, so I can print proper credit here.)

The scene, set on a bed of sauerkraut and photographed inside an open oven, features the crèche cast (sans angels and shepherds).

Mary and Joseph, along with the three wise men, are sausages, wrapped in lunch meat, which is affixed with toothpicks. You can tell the magi by their foil crowns, which match the tin pan in which the scene sits. Sheep are made from cocktail wieners, and a one-hump camel is constructed from a brat with mini-weiner legs.

The stable features a back wall of brats, covered by a peaked bacon roof.

Someone certainly put some work into cooking up the pork nativity scene.

I couldn’t tell you who created it, and I don’t pretend to know the attitude of the clearly creative food artist. Was it a Sunday school teacher, building a Bible lesson his or her students could sink their teeth into? Or was it a sarcastic chef, poking half-baked fun at the birth of the Babe at Bethlehem?

No one knows the intentions of the human heart but God alone (see Psalm 17:3 and Romans 2:2).

Does it matter, in the end, why the pork nativity was first made?

God can use anything to declare His glory.

“All of Your works will thank you, LORD,

and Your faithful followers will praise you.”

(Psalm 145:10, NLT)

Throughout human history, those who know and love Him have sketched and sculpted images to tell His story in unlimited media. From sand castles to mud paintings, from snow scenes to fingernail-scratched cave etchings, folks have created artwork to point to the Lord.

Shipwrecked and abandoned souls have carved sacred scenes in rocks and trees. Prisoners have drawn icons on cell walls in dust, dung, rat guts and even their own blood.

On the other hand, less reverent artisans have produced sarcastic and sacrilegious stuff of infinite varieties as well. From parodies to the practically pornographic, these works have stunned saints and appalled the pious.

Often, however, even the most offensive images have sparked dialogues of faith.

The One who created the pig also made the producer of the pork nativity and the ability to invent artwork. And He can transform sarcastic to sacred and turn mockery into miracles. Even if the crafty crèche creator was earnest, many of those who have forwarded the photos have done so in jest. But still, the message of Christmas has been transmitted all over the internet, as a result.

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How would Jesus feel about a pork nativity?

Regardless of the initial purpose of the meaty manger scene, I can’t help wondering whether Jesus Himself might find this amusing. Our marvelous Messiah loves a good party. He transformed water to wine for a friend’s wedding in Cana. He and the Father have spent nearly 2,000 years preparing for the miraculous Marriage Supper of the Lamb (see Revelation 19).

Sure, Jesus was born Jewish. The rod of Jesse and Son of David probably never ate pork. A bacon and sausage breakfast sculpture is anything but kosher. Still, if even one meat-loving diner learned about the miracle of Christmas while enjoying a tasty meal the illustrating the Reason for the Season, who are we to argue?

Is a carnivore’s crèche any more irreverent than Crown of Thorns Cookies, an Easter Cross Cake, Empty Tomb Cookies, or butter sculpted to resemble the Lamb of God?

Maybe a few hot dogs and some rolled bologna are not baloney, after all. Hey, things could be a whole lot wurst.

True meat lovers, like my son-in-law, whose birthday happens to be Christmas Day, would welcome such a bountiful brunch as the pork nativity. “Bring it on,” he might say, “and God bless us, every one.”

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Pork Nativity photo by Greg Chow

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Looking at a Light that Led

Looking at a Light that Led

“After Jesus was born

in Bethlehem in Judea,

during the time of King Herod,

Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

and asked,

‘Where is the One

who has been born king of the Jews?

We saw His star when it rose

and have come to worship Him.’”

(Matthew 28:1-2, NIV)

Have you ever followed a star, as the three Magi (or Wise Men) from the Orient did, when they journeyed to Bethlehem to see the infant Christ?

It may sound far-fetched or even a little crazy for men of apparent wisdom and extensive studies  to load up their camels and leave their homes to travel over mountains and across deserts to offer their eccentric (yet intriguingly prophetic) gifts to a baby in a rustic stall in the hills of Judea outside Jerusalem.

What sort of star did the Magi see and follow?

Historians and astronomers have studied the marvels of the heavens and proposed all sorts of hypotheses. Perhaps the star of Bethlehem was a meteor, a solar flare, or even a unique astrological phenomenon.

Whatever it was, the star led these learned ones directly to the spot where Jesus slept in the straw, attended by Mary and Joseph and surrounded by mooing and braying and baaing farm animals.

I have always wondered how the three Magi knew this star was worth heeding.

We don’t know a lot about this trio. Christian tradition names them as Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior. They were likely noblemen from Eastern backgrounds, rather than Jewish. Although the three Wise Men were not magicians, per se, they obviously followed the movements of the planets and stars. Perhaps they were astrologers.

Clearly, the three Magi were men of means, based on the gifts they brought to the Christ child, as well as their ability to travel as they did.

Somehow, God spoke to these three men, directing them to drop everything and follow His star to the spot where His Son arrived on earth. Undoubtedly, these well-studied men were familiar with Jewish Messianic prophecies, such as these:

“A Star shall come out of Jacob;

a Scepter shall rise out of Israel.”

(Numbers 24:17, NKJV)

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are little

among the thousands of Judah,

yet out of you shall come forth to Me

the One to be Ruler in Israel.”

(Micah 5:2, NKJV)

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Isn’t God against astrology?

God’s Word warns against worshiping the stars and other created bodies.

“And when you look up to the sky

and see the sun, the moon and the stars –

all the heavenly array –

do not be enticed into bowing down to them

and worshiping things

the LORD your God has apportioned

to all the nations under heaven.”

(Deuteronomy 4:19, NIV)

This caution fits right in with the first commandment:

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”

(Exodus 20:3, ESV)

Divination, a practice using the stars and other signs to predict the future, is expressly prohibited in the Bible (see Leviticus 19:26). Horoscopes and zodiac charts employ such analysis, which directly contrasts with such Scriptures as this:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

do not depend on your own understanding.

Seek His will in all you do,

and He will show you which path to take.”

(Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT)

Surely, the Creator of the heavens and the earth has everything He made at his disposal. If Jehovah God chose to lead a trio of Eastern scholars from the Orient to Bethlehem’s stable by means of a bright star, then this was well within His prerogative to do so. This smacks not of prognostication, but speaks clearly to the Lord’s power over all of nature.

The Light of the World can gather any beam He wants and employ whatever signs He selects to grab man’s attention. And God still leads today in a host of ways. If we wish to follow, we have only to look up.

This Christmas, do we dare to glance beyond the neon, the twinkling colorful strands, and the bright LED displays? Would we rather see a star-studded holiday show or the One whose arrival history’s most special star announced?

What do we seek this Yuletide season?

• happy holidays or a holy night?
• tinsel or triumph?
• Santa or Satan’s Vanquisher?
• bountiful baubles or or Bethlehem’s Babe?
• glitz or glory?
• Christmas or Christ?
• mistletoe or the Messiah?
• lovely lights or the Lord of Light?

None of these choices is necessarily bad, in and of itself. Perhaps this is one more issue of balance and focus and attitude. If God chooses to lead us this Christmas, will we see His sign?

Somebody stop me. I’m preaching to the mirror again.

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Kickin' It with the King of Kings

Kickin' It with the King of Kings

“What’s in a name?” William Shakespeare asked (Romeo and Juliet, II, ii, 1-2).

Names count for plenty!

I love Jesus, and I love all of the names by which He has been called. In the Bible, the Savior has been tagged with several terrific terms.

Here are 15 of my favorite names of Christ:

1. Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48)
2. Bridegroom (Matthew 9:15)
3. Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16)
4. Dayspring (Luke 1:78)
5. Desire of all nations (Haggai 2:7)
6. Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11)
7. Forerunner (Hebrews 6:20)
8. Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36)
9. Light of the World (John 1:8; 8:12)
10. Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5)
11. Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 44:6)
12. Our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7)
13. Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
14. Redeemer (Job 19:25; Isaiah 59:20; Isaiah 60:16)
15. Shepherd and Overseer of Souls (1 Peter 2:25)

Hallelujah! He is the King of Kings (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14). And He is our Healer, the Great Physician (Mark 2:16-17).

Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and you will be amazed at the number of times Jesus healed the sick, the lame and the hurting. He mended bodies, minds and souls everywhere He walked.

Do you need healing?

I surely do, and I know many others who pray earnestly for the same thing.

Daily, I pray for healing for loved ones with broken bodies and fractured feelings. Cancers, strokes, seizures, heart conditions and other maladies trouble people I care about.

Personally, I plead with God for a cure for a chronic medical condition with which I was diagnosed a couple of years ago, for freedom from frequent migraines, and for mending of traumatic injuries I sustained last summer in a riding accident. But in my mind’s eye, I’m kicking up my heels with the King of Kings.

What do you ask of the Great Physician?

Infirmities take many forms, but the Lord is the answer to each kind of struggle. Perhaps He will heal us immediately. Maybe He will lead us on a journey of gradual improvement. In the end, those who follow Him will find the complete answer to our prayers.

“But for you who revere My Name,

the Sun of Righteousness

will rise with healing in its rays.

And you will go out and frolic

like well-fed calves.”

(Malachi 4:2, NIV)

If healing tarries, what can we do?

I love stories like this. Country star Brad Paisley just released a new hit single, titled “Hard Life.” The message is powerful, and downloads benefit the A-T Children’s Project. Personally, this cause touches my heart as much as the song lyrics do, as my granddaughter lives with A-T daily.

“Hard Life” was written by Joe Kindregan (23), a pal of Paisley’s, who also has A-T.

Give the song a listen. See what you think.

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Life is hard, no matter what we face. Every one of us has a story, filled with challenges of our own flavors.

But thank God for sending the King of Kings, the Bright and Morning Star, the Prince of Peace and the Light of the World as a baby in Bethlehem to offer hope of healing and a reason for living.

He knows your name and mine. And He is the Answer.

One day, sooner or later, may we all be kickin’ it with the King of Kings.

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Just Joyful

Just Joyful

What’s the most effective way to deck the halls for Christmas? Try joy!

"Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles,” said an unknown speaker. I’d like to agree.

Here are three reminders I've seen recently, pointing me to the joy of Jesus at Christmastime. (You might say I have a few angel-finger-sized pokes in my side. Did you overhear the whispers that said, "Pssst! Just be joyful"?)

1. Krugerrands and Free Tolls

OK, this happens every year. Someone tosses a solid gold coin or two into a Salvation Army bell ringer’s red bucket. Others skip the automated highway tool lanes and wait in lines for the cash-only booths, simply to prepay the road fees for anonymous motorists inching up behind them.

I actually benefited from this random act of Christmas kindness a few years ago. Before I had the automatic transponder, I pulled into a toll booth on the interstate to learn that the driver ahead of me had paid my toll. Sure, it was only 40 cents, but it made my day to see unconditional goodwill in action. It happens!

2) Caroling with Gusto

Christmas carolers can be charming or downright obnoxious, depending on the setting and their sense of personal boundaries. We’ve all experienced all-too-up-close-and-personal crooners, harping histrionically into our ears in cozy restaurants and even crowded bus stations.

But the real Christmas spirit is contagious, when it arrives.

Last night, one little girl stole the show during a children’s choir performance I was fortunate enough to attend. Eight four-year-old cherubs lined up on the platform in the church sanctuary, dressed from head to toe in holiday finery. But one child stood out, once the music started.

I can’t call her a songbird, so to speak, but she had volume and energy. The kid had some pipes! This peppy preschooler hollered the lyrics, occasionally even marking the melody.

The Psalmist described the attitude of this precocious chorister aptly:

“Make a joyful noise unto God, all the earth;

Sing forth the honor and glory of His name.

Make His praise glorious!”

(Psalm 66:1-2, Amplified).

This kid’s noise was definitely joyful. When the song ended, the place positively exploded with applause. Hey, no one ever said joyful noises had to carry perfect pitch.

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3) Prepaid Layaways

I love stories like this one. Mysterious secret Santas in Indiana and Michigan (and perhaps elsewhere) have been stopping at Kmart stores to pay off layaway purchases for other shoppers. Thousands of dollars of owed funds have been presented by the unknown benefactors on behalf of total strangers.

Apparently, both customers and employees are acting considerably jollier since the trend began about a week ago. Can you blame them?

"Jesus joy special on aisle seven." Gotta love it.

Jesus’ joy is catchy, and it’s free.

Malls are crowded, and parking lots are packed. Rudeness and impatience may easily abound, it doesn’t have to.

Sometimes joy can be shared for free, though it’s always worthwhile.

How can we catch a moment of Christmas love in action?

Here are 10 simple suggestions.

1. Waving another driver into a prime parking spot at the mall
2. Donating a toy for needy children.
3. Complimenting a total stranger on a pretty outfit in a store fitting area (without being creepy)
4. Greeting a tired store employee with cheer
5. Dropping off a dozen cookies at a neighbor’s house
6. Opening the door at the package shipping site for someone with a pile of parcels
7. Smiling at passersby for no apparent reason (again, not creepily, of course)
8. Sending a Christmas greeting to a soldier overseas.
9. Inviting an overwrought fellow shopper to go ahead in the checkout line
10. Visiting a local nursing home to sing Christmas carols with friends … or just to visit

How many more ideas can you suggest? How can we give the gift of Christmas to keep Jesus’ joy going on and on and one?

“Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schultz offered this definition of the happiest holiday season:

"Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone."

Joyful Christmas to you!

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Singing Children’s Choir

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Incarnate and In-Person

Incarnate and In-Person

Jesus, the perfect Son of the Almighty God, was clothed in flesh and born into our world. To God be the glory for sending holiness to humanity.

Jesus became God Incarnate. What’s that?

Bible scholars wax eloquent about the incarnation of Christ. What does that mean?

It’s really quite simple, although it’s a miraculous mystery as well.

Let’s unpack the incarnation.

Do you like chili? I love a steaming cup of this deliciously spicy soup, particularly on a chilly winter night. My favorite is called “Chili con Carne.” That’s chili with meat (or "flesh," to be precise, etymologically speaking).

I prefer to make my own Chili con Carne, but the canned version is also available.

Chili con Carne offers a delicious meal, but it’s also a super word picture for the incarnation of the living Christ. The words "carne" and "incarnation" come from the same root, which refers to flesh. (I didn't invent this analogy - or my Chili con Carne recipe, but I like 'em both!)

At Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, El Shaddai showed up. He became God con Carne, or God with flesh. Emmanuel arrived in the form of a frail human baby to live among real people and ultimately to die as payment for the sin of all mankind.

The Lord Himself was wrapped in human skin, so He could dwell in our world and feel what we feel. The ever-present all-powerful King of Kings took on our form to reach us. 

The Son of God became the Son of Man as well.

“The Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory,

the glory of the One and Only,

who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.”

(John 1:14, NIV)

When I was a kid, I had a Sunday school teacher who summed this up so simply. “If we were ants, and God wanted to reach us, He would have sent His Son as an ant. If we were birds, He would have come as a bird. Jehovah meets us where we are,” he explained.

I’ve never forgotten that. Maybe you won’t forget it, either.

The Incarnation was God in-person. Jesus was God with flesh. Hallelujah.

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Campbell's Chili Con Carne

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Nativity of Christ,

by Sandro Botticelli

15^th Century

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Is Ho-ho-ho a No-no-no?

Is Ho-ho-ho a No-no-no?

I have just come from a fancy "Brunch with Santa" party. This boisterous holiday event, which included a bountiful buffet, clearly was considerably more fun for those who brought children along, as we did, than for those who did not.

Santa Claus sat on an upholstered divan, clad in red velvet and positioned strategically in front of an enormous Christmas tree. 

After eating, families lined up for their turn, as each sugar-loaded child climbed up next to the jolly old fellow to whisper his or her wants in his ear and grin for the camera.

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Meanwhile, Santa’s elf took down names (and credit card numbers) for photographic prints. Yep, we bought a few. How could we not? Isn’t that what grandparents do?

When our merry munchkin nestled in next to Santa, even the elf began chuckling to see my stepdaughter, her husband and me, as we lined up with our own camera phones to record the moment. (See? Did you really think I was old enough to be a grandmother the old-fashioned way?)

Surely, this was a happy Christmas memory in the works, and those pricey pictures will be adored for many years to come.

What’s wrong with Santa Claus?

Plenty of Christians frown on all of this merrymaking. But must we? Can we be pious without being prune-faced? Is it possible to laugh and sing and dance without making light of the most important arrival in all of human history?

Christmas marks the birthday of Jesus, the only Son of the Almighty One. We get that. And we have come to adore Christ the Lord. We mark His coming with both solemn reverence and joy to the world. Without His advent, we would not stand a chance in Heaven.

But what a party!

Even Santa would agree. Let’s keep the glee in Jesus’ birthday, as long as we remember why we put out poinsettias (more on that in another post), decorate our Christmas trees, light candles, lick sticky candy canes and exchange gifts.

“Many will rejoice

because of His birth.”

(Luke 1:14b, NIV)

 

Don’t tell my little granddaughter, but under my tree is a tiny box containing a hand-carved Holy Land olive wood nativity ornament from my recent trip to Bethlehem. Even as we giggle over visits with Santa, we still remember Whose party this really is.

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Ho-ho-ho and hallelujah! Jesus has come!

So bring it on, Santa! Have at it, Kris Kringle. We’ve got reason to celebrate!

Just for fun, here’s a song my friend Mike at MillerWrites recently brought to mind. Just try not to sing along. You probably can’t help it! And be sure to check out his blog!

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Santa Face
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