Recently at an event, I was asked if St. Nick (aka Santa Claus) was just a commercial icon to encourage us to buy things?
Or
Does St. Nick (Santa Claus) have something to teach us?
My response was:
To some Santa Claus is simply a commercial icon ... buy this for someone or for yourself. In other words a hedonist expression or illusion, pushed into by merchants aggressively trying to create a pattern of movement, movement of their products.
The history of Santa reveals that he was a real person who went around his "hood" giving gifts to children.
I believe we can learn from Santa that life is about giving not just to little ones but to big ones too.
The story of Santa is about giving from the heart and caring.
Santa resonates with the true story of Christmas. In reality, Christmas is Jesusmas. It is not just a commercial bonanza rather a commemoration of the birth of Jesus.
Jesus' message was: to acknowledge and cherish our connection with God; to love yourself in a positive caring way; to love others as you love yourself.
Jesus was a God~man who shook the conventional wisdom of his time and of our time today. People had and still have a hard time accepting his message.
Jesus' message was not about being a "savior," a "Christ," nor about restoring a physical kingdom (both very old testament perspectives) ~
His message was that we are all intimately connected to God, and inviting us to celebrate life with the gifts and talents that we were given.
I think that we can learn a lot from Jesus and from Santa.
Happy Hannukkah (festival of lights) and
Happy Jesus' birthday (messenger of light) to all my blog readers !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment