So many different events require different types of head gear/hats. We can put on a pretty hat for a wedding, or we can wear a hard hat on a construction site as it’s a requirement for safety purposes but what if we were asked to wear Santa’s hat? We would need to represent him and be a jolly, happy, loveable, kind, and fun guy 24/7… could we handle doing that?
Over the years there have been countless movies on the different types of Santas there could possibly ever be and different links on google give him a type of identity (see description below in box) but I think there is a deeper underlying character he (Santa) represents, not only to children but to many worldwide - he understands, knows us, is kind and wants to give to us the miracle or Love!
Back when my children were small, came the saying ‘What Would Jesus Do’
WWJD is an acronym for What Would Jesus Do. This sentiment is an admonition to make decisions and live one’s life in the same way that Jesus Christ would. The phrase What Would Jesus Do was coined by Reverand Charles Sheldon, a Congregationalist Church minister in Topeka, Kansas in 1886. Sheldon preached a series of sermons posing moral dilemmas, and ending these sermons with the question “What Would Jesus Do?” The next week, Sheldon would answer that question, his sermons taking the form of cliffhanger serials. In 1896 Sheldon collected these sermons in a book, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? In 1989 a youth minister in Holland, Michigan named Janie Tinklenberg read Sheldon’s book. She was so taken with the phrase What Would Jesus Do? that she came up with the acronym WWJD and designed friendship bracelets for her youth to wear as a reminder to make moral decisions.
I know from reading the New Testament in the bible that there were many instances where Jesus understood those in need, he showed kindness and physically touched individuals with healing and the miracle of His Love!
Just like here at this time of Christmas, we try to inspire and encourage others with the gift of giving to others, Hope, and the miracle of Love that Jesus Christ brings to us.
When Jesus was born a group of highly intelligent philosophers thought he was worth bothering with.
They stopped everything to take him three symbolic presents. The first was gold – a present fit for a king. The child in the manger was the King of kings and Lord of lords. God himself had come to live as part of our world. Too often Jesus has been obscured by Christmas. One man wrote to The Times: ‘Sir: Failing to find any religious books in the bookshop, I asked an assistant for help. She showed me an inconspicuous handful of Bibles and prayer books, saying: “We have had to move them down to the bottom shelf because of Christmas”’. But the point of Christmas is Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the birthday of the most
important person who has ever lived. He is the centrepiece of our civilisation. After all, we call what happened before his birth ‘bc’ and what happened after ‘ad’.
excerpt from - Why Christmas by Nicky Gumbel
I saw a movie called ‘One Christmas’ with Katharine Hepburn where she is explaining Santa to a young boy…
‘Of course there’s a Santa Clause, its just that there is no single someone who can do all that he has to do so the task has been spread around so that is why everybody is Santa Clause, I am, you are…’
I believe that if we have Jesus Christ living within us then the miracle of His Love then impassions us forward to be all the good that He calls us to be to others. A Santa type, giving gifts, a carer helping those in need, chefs cooking for many and so much more that is needed – not just now at Christmas but all year round! Are we individually up for the task of ‘wearing the Santa hat’?
‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 John 4:19). As we look at the cross, we understand God’s love for us. When the Spirit of God comes to live within us we experience that love. As we do so we receive a new love for God and for other people. We are set free to live a life of love – a life centred around loving and serving Jesus and loving and serving other people rather than a life centred around ourselves.
excerpt from - Why Christmas by Nicky Gumbel
This Christmas I pray that you would really know Him, Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour and that in turn He would reveal to you, who you are and what He has in store for your life and the life of others he wants you to touch and transform for a life in His glorious Kingdom.
(Jesus said) … “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are….
Matthew 16:15-18 MSG
