The Truth about Santa Claus

Most recently, the Awana teens had a study on faith. Because it is Christmas-time and because I want to start with something they know, I asked them to get into small groups and discuss Santa Claus – how they learned “the truth” about Santa, what sorts of treats they left him, etc.

I found out about Santa Claus when I was 5 years old. My mom, who had been very careful, accidentally wrapped one small Santa gift in Strawberry Shortcake wrapping paper, Strawberry Shortcake wrapping paper that I recognized. I knew she had used it before and I knew it was hers. It all poured in on me at once and I was devastated. By the time I went to bed that night I had figured it all out – Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny.

Maybe living in the house I did contributed to my short-lived faith in Santa. We did have a chimney, but I knew very well that I was not connected to a fireplace, but to a wood burning stove through a pipe no more than 6 inches across. These Miami kids don’t even have chimneys; I wonder what their parents told them!

I wanted to use Santa Claus to show the difference between childish faith and mature faith. Obviously faith in Santa Claus is a genie sort of faith – I want this, that, and the other. But it struck me that at one time or another (or most of the time, I seem to find in my case), faith in God deteriorates to just that. I thought of the Lord’s Prayer and how little time it devotes to requests – especially compared with how much of it is devoted to God’s will and praise.

Maybe faith in Santa Claus is more like faith in God than I thought. It starts out as something childish, “I want, I wish, I hope…” and as our eyes are opened we see that it’s not a jolly stranger in red, but our loving parents giving us these gifts. And as we grow past needing to have everything on our list to be happy we begin to understand a little of why we couldn’t have everything we asked for.

Thanksgiving Adventures

We just returned from Ohio where we spent Thanksgiving with Rob's family. It was so nice to visit with his family and to get some time away from Miami. I have some pictures to share.

Rob's mom helped me make these cute corn cookies for the Thanksgiving feast in Columbus. I copied the recipe from Family Fun magazine. They are super sugar rush cookies, so just don't say I didn't warn you!

Caleb got to practice the piano several times while we were in Ohio. We thought it was cute how he joined in with his second cousins Taigen and Lexi at the piano. Actually Rob says he tried to push their hands off the piano.

We got to meet some elves and saw the "North Pole" (aka Penninsula, Ohio).

Also in Penninsula, we saw this Christmas llama.

While we were in Cleveland, the house made famous by the movie A Christmas Story opened to visitors. We didn't take the tour, but we drove by at night. Our picture of the house didn't turn out in the dark, but you can see the leg lamp glowing in the window. Of course we watched the movie afterward to make sure it looked authentic. (It did.)

On Monday, Caleb spent the day with grandma while Rob and I went to Ohio Amish country. (Sounds like a theme park, reminds me of Wild River Country). We just drove around, which is all I wanted to do really. We saw two Amish schools with kids playing outside and several black wagons and men with beards.

Mako was soooooooooooooooooo happy to see us when we got home. I don't think I've ever seen a dog wiggle so much! I think he enjoyed his time as king of the house, I noticed a dog shaped indention complete with black fur on our couch.

Imitation...

It's been said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

He didn't blow any bubbles, but then he wasn't actually blowing in the 2nd picture, he was tasting the wand.

An Answered Prayer

I have an example of answered prayer to report. I guess it is the sort of thing that God could have answered another way and I might have never known He answered it. Regardless..

Back in B.C. (Before Caleb) I volunteered to help in the high school department of Awanas in our church. I taught the lesson and helped with game time/activities as needed. I really enjoyed it and hoped I could continue. That school year ended and at the start of the next one I was about 3 weeks away from Caleb being born. I'm sure that the leaders never guessed I'd want to keep it up after the baby was born (and I didn't realize at the time how much he would interfere with my activities at that time), so they replaced me. Honestly, my feelings were hurt because they didn't mention it to me before annoucing the new teacher publicly. In time I saw that it was for the best. I did pray about it though and asked God that if He wanted me to teach it again that He would engineer the circumstances to make it happen and I wouldn't pursue it particularly.

At the beginning of this year, they needed volunteers in all age groups, so Rob and I signed up to help with the teens and began leading discussion groups after the main lesson. Just recently we found out that the current teacher was going to be moving and they asked me to replace him! I was thrilled and totally surprised!

I'm pretty sure that every time you start teaching a Bible study the topic is something impossible - usually prayer at a time when you feel like your prayer life is as bland as mashed potatoes or the Holy Spirit - pretty much anytime. This Bible study time is a combination of the high school and middle school lessons (they break up into small groups afterwards). The high school is studying doctrinal issues, while the middle schoolers are doing a sort of topical study that uses old testament passages. I guess sometimes these two things fit together pretty well. Hmm...my first lesson was end times for senior high and idolatry for the middle school! And I only had 25 minutes! I felt like I was running track! Somehow I survived and I'm very excited to see what new things we can do. Rob and I both would like to give the class less of a "school-like" feel and see the teens excited about learning about the Bible. I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do!

By the way, totally unrelated, but also very exciting - Caleb has offically said his first word - it's "doggie" - and being a dog person myself I couldn't be happier - we were in a store today and he saw a statue of a dog with her puppy and he very clearly said, "doggie" while pointing at the statue. He said it twice - and it was doggie, not gaga or gaggie, which he's been saying for a while. Still waiting on ma-ma...

Double Trouble

Poor Amy. I used to play Playdough with her or draw. I used to read her stories. But not anymore. Unless Caleb and Ashley are strapped tightly into their highchairs, all I do when I babysit is hover over the babies...er toddlers. They have both moved on to climbing.

I was really caught off guard by this developmental milestone. I watched Caleb struggle fruitlessly to get on the couch, cheering him on and feeling proud of his efforts, but once he reached the top, I wasn't smiling or cheering...I was holding my breath and standing nearby like a spotter on a cheerleading squad. I thought that was bad enough and then he and Ashley discovered chairs! Oh the delight of suddenly being tall enough to reach the table! The thrilling independence of climbing for them - but for me, I feel my hair turning grey.

So for any of you who were wondering about by babysitting experiences, let's just say, they are reaching new heights!

Up to Something...

Kelly gave Caleb this cute shirt for his birthday. It's a size 12m, so I've got to get it on him every time it's clean. He is growing so fast. My friend Jessica, whose little boy is almost 1, said she got him a shirt that says, "I do all my own stunts." I thought that was pretty fitting for a little boy too!

Curiously, there's no number on this shirt.

Man vs. Machine

Ah, election day...finally these incessant political commercials will end. One I heard several times on the radio actually said (I'll summarize), "Don't vote for this guy - he has a friend and his friend is bad!"

I'm always surprised to hear all the chatter about electronic voting machines. We've voted by EVM's for several years now. The critics always cite two things 1.) That they are confusing and 2.) That they are computers and we all know how often computers give us fits. (Of course there's the whole "no paper trail, but if there was a paper trail the votes wouldn't be secret debate", but that's actually important and I'll just skip it.)

The idea that these machines are confusing to use is laughable. The operation of an EVM is so straightforward, as Geico says, "a caveman could do it." If you can't figure it out, a paper ballot must be like taking the GRE. Secondly, even if you do use a paper ballot (an optical scan/bubble ballot), those things are read by those ire inducing computers!

Hanging chad, butterfly ballots, absentee voters, no election will ever be perfect, but before we get too steamed at the system, let's remember how blessed we are to live in the USA where we do get to vote and where are votes are more than likely counted correctly.

"All men are liars..."*

It isn't the first time I've been exasperated by the evening news and it isn't the first time I've complained about it on my blog, but here I am again.

Somehow the story of Ted Haggard is worthy of the number 1 or number 2 slot in every news show I've seen the last few days. In a nutshell - or for posterity - Haggard is the (now former) senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is reported as being a national leader for evangelical Christians. Unless I am unclear about the standard definition of an evangelical Christian, I'd categorize myself under that label - though I'm starting to see why foreign missionaries often forgo the title Christian altogether for "Follower of Christ". However I had never heard of Ted Haggard. His fall from grace left me unshaken and unsurprised. I'm only surprised at the media's fascination with it.

There are two things in particular that I find interesting - not about the story, but about the media craze it created.

First, I noticed that people outside of the church think that Christians think they are infallible. And maybe this is not a point of criticism - maybe they're right, maybe many Christians DO think they are not sinners. We just did a lesson in our Awana's group about sin (and being sinners) - I lead a discussion group with the senior high girls. The discussion led the same place it always seems to - a line in the sand. I told the girls that the Bible says that even the best people are sinners, it's a sin to worry, it's a sin just to think about sinning! The Bible doesn't say these things just so that we will feel bad about being sinners, but so that we will sense the futility of trying to be accepted by God based on our own good works. If we don't admit we are sinners, we don't really understand why Jesus died on the cross.

Second, those outside the church (or at least the reporter doing the story I saw most recently) fully expect there to be more scandal in the church. At the end of the story about Ted Haggard, the reporter said, "The church will appoint another senior pastor by the end of the year." The emphasis on the word "another" sounded full of expectation that "another" pharisaical, hypocrite would be appointed. But this too is a lesson we can learn from the world. No pastor is going to be perfect. No matter who they choose, their entire pool of applicants will be sinners. Yes, perhaps another senior pastor may do something just as bad or worse. That is what makes the term "Follower of Christ" so tempting, we don't even want to be associated with these people. But even the Bible calls us Christians and part of being a Christian is accepting repentant sinners into our little group and allowing them the grace we allow ourselves to not be perfect. After all that is what Jesus did.

*Psalm 116:11

Snotsville

My stuffy, snotty little boy and I are at home this morning. He feels great and this is not the sort of cold that would keep me home from church - of course I can wipe my own nose and don't put toys in my mouth. When I was deciding if he should stay home, I tried to imagine one of the other mothers dropping their toddler off at the nursery with goopy snot running from each nostril and realized he wouldn't be welcome...at least not happily.

I'm not sure what is a more life changing event - a new baby or a new toddler. I think I feel the difficulty more now that Caleb is at this strange mix of mastering motor skills and lacking communication skills. Which brings me to another decision I have had to make - that Bible study I mentioned a few days ago is something that will have to wait for another day. I tried a second time and left exhausted - basically I was babysitting my own son in someone elses house - I didn't get to give any attention to the study. (This is a picture of his latest hobby - climbing on the coffee table - its siren song calls him back repeatedly - no, we don't encourage this) I'm sure that in a few months I'll be able to go back.

A Warning to All Veggie Tales Characters

Here comes Caleb!



(A close up view...)