{"id":371,"date":"2018-12-15T09:32:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/its-baby-jesus-and-santa-time\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:16:01","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:16:01","slug":"its-baby-jesus-and-santa-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Baby Jesus AND Santa Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The competition is real! Baby Jesus versus Santa! I\u2019ll admit it. I cringe a little when Jesus and Santa get the same \u201ctop billing\u201d. THE One is very real and the other is make-believe and THAT one\u2019s promises are based on what someone delivers or not. I was amused when at my church a couple of weeks ago, St. Nick (the original \u201cSanta\u201d) was in the Parish Hall for those sweet, traditional \u201cSt. Nick aka Santa\u201d photo opportunities. Then, at church in Austin, Santa showed up for photos, too. I get it. It\u2019s a subtle way for families to hear the good news of Jesus\u2019 birth and give them photo opportunities. Lately, good old St. Nick aka Santa, in all his red and white glory, has been seen at churches, malls, and holiday parties. Man! Does Santa ever get around!!!<\/p>\n

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We sure boost the support of \u201cSanta Claus is Coming to Town\u201d to our children. They learn that a mysterious guy in a red and white suit can see them when they\u2019re sleeping and awake. He even sees them when they\u2019re good and bad, so we reinforce that they\u2019d better be good\u2026.for goodness sake. We take them to see Santa and encourage them to tell him what they want for Christmas. And, if that\u2019s not enough\u2026..we tell them that he\u2019s coming down the chimney and he\u2019ll show up with their wishes \u2013 so they must be sure to leave cookies for him because he\u2019ll be very hungry as he flies in a reindeer-driven sleigh, delivering his gifts to children all over the world. And, to further spoofing them, many folks will go to their rooftops and make stomping sounds, while ringing sleigh bells. Doesn’t that make your brain go TILT, even just a little bit?<\/p>\n

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I encouraged honesty in my children from the get-go, not giving a second thought to the possibility of dishonesty about Santa. Oh, how I wish I had given them the true story of a mythical Santa who was clearly founded in St. Nicholas who honored Jesus Christ with his life and his possessions. St. Nicholas (St. Nick) gave freely of his riches to benefit those who were less fortunate than himself. “Giving\u201d is clearly one of Christianity’s guiding principles in Scripture — to care for the poor. Now, being much wiser and thriving on honesty and truth, I look back and think \u201cWhat were we thinking?\u201d I desire to be honest in all my ways, so that those who follow my lead, are led closer to THE LIGHT than are being led astray. Truth is TRUTH \u2013 NOT stretching the truth, or \u201cIt\u2019s so cute to see those little wide eyes of wonder.”<\/p>\n

Some may think this is a crotchety ole’ gal\u2019s reality, but, in reality, it\u2019s the closer I get to the Baby in the Manger Who became my Savior, the more I want to be like Him, full of grace and TRUTH. \u201cThe Word (Jesus) became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14<\/p>\n

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My little \u201cHoly Family\u201d and sign that says \u201cBorn this day, a Savior Who is Christ the Lord\u201d seems like a meager attempt to celebrate THE ONE who Christmas is really all about. Hopefully, someone will see it and their attention will be drawn to think about the real Reason for the Season, but no question It seems lost amidst the gigantic Santa inflatables around the neighborhoods. <\/p>\n

\u201cMommy, is there really a Santa Claus?\u201d is a question that families ponder each year. I pray you seek God\u2019s wisdom on how best to explain to them in \u201cgrace and truth\u201d. 1 John 3:18 “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in TRUTH.” And if TRUTH is told \u2013 may we give our families a True Story of love, peace, hope, joy, and compassion \u2013 the TRUE Christmas Story. What is easier to believe \u2013 Santa Claus or that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to earth as a baby, to a lovely couple and the shepherds and wise men came to see him and when they saw him, they worshiped him because he was the newborn King who would set them free – WHO SET US FREE? Christmas IS NOT a holiday. It is a HOLY DAY! May we honor the HOLY One Who really did come to give us the greatest gift — Himself.<\/p>\n

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The competition is real! Baby Jesus versus Santa! I\u2019ll admit it. I cringe a little when Jesus and Santa get the same \u201ctop billing\u201d. THE One is very real and the other is make-believe and THAT one\u2019s promises are based on what someone delivers or not. I was amused when at my church a couple…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[600,601,602,589,603,455,604,605,606,503,607,608,609,610],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baby-jesus","tag-care-for-the-poor","tag-full-of-grace-and-truth","tag-giving","tag-holy-day","tag-holy-family","tag-honesty","tag-honesty-and-truth","tag-john-114","tag-santa","tag-santa-claus","tag-st-nicholas","tag-st-nick","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8876,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/8876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}