Let me offer my thanks to Doug Nichols who sent me this wonderful article by Wayne Taylor. This article talks about the real St. Nick – very timely for the season! Let me share it with you:
Every Christmas, it seems like Santa Claus gets more and more attention. He’s the star of movies and television specials, his picture appears on cards and wrapping paper, and he can be found at every mall. Life-size plastic Santas light up our front yards, and the worldwide progress of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer are even tracked on Christmas Eve newscasts!
Why is Santa Claus such a big deal? Perhaps it’s because we want someone supernatural to believe in, someone who’s too good to be true, someone who will show us the way to live and to love one another.
For most people, it doesn’t matter that Santa is a fantasy – at least he’s an ideal we can look up to for a few weeks every year. But actually, the fantasy Santa Claus is based on a real person.
There was a man named Nicholas who lived in present-day Turkey in the fourth Century A.D. He was called Saint Nicholas because he lived a devout Christian life from an early age. It’s believed that the name Santa Claus came from the Dutch translation of his real name, Sinter Klaas. Saint Nicholas was a generous man and was especially noted for a specific act of kindness in giving bags of money to a poor man who had three daughters. This money was used for the daughters’ dowries so that they could be married.
Saint Nicholas became the bishop of Myra in Turkey, and was persecuted and imprisoned by the Roman Emperor Diocletian for his devotion to Christ. When the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, Saint Nicholas was released from prison and continued to live as a zealous Christian minister throughout the rest of his life.
Saint Nicholas was a man filled with the spirit of joy and giving because he believed not in a myth, but in the divine Savior. Though the fat, happy Santa Claus who wears a red suit and lives at the North Pole is a fantasy, there is a real supernatural person you can believe in and depend on every day of the year. That person is Jesus Christ.
End of article.
The real St. Nick shows his pure love and devotion to Christ who came down to earth as a baby born in a borrowed manger – nothing fancy or luxurious – so he could carry your sins and mine, die on the Cross in our behalf, and be buried in a borrowed grave. All this so you and I will have life in Him. But Christmas is incomplete without the Resurrection, because Christ was born, Christ fulfilled and finished his mission, and Christ promised to come again in full glory, might and power.
Christmas is not the same as the happy holidays. Do not substitute the word “Christ” with an “X” and then add “-mas” because you feel uncomfortable saying The Name. “And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6b
The season is a great time for us to celebrate The Name. And one day, Christmas or not, that Name will be recognized and acknowledged by everyone in the world.
Yes, Virginia, the real St. Nick is the one who loved Christ, not the jolly overweight guy who wears red pajamas and a stocking on his head. Now this puts meaning to the season.
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