The Hunt for Red December….

Well we’ve just had a white Christmas, so we do not need to hunt for the snow, we had a lovely disruptive drop of flakes on Sunday. My kids loved it. Catching snowflakes on their tongues and having a snowball fight with mum & dad in the garden. The title of this post hearkens back to the 1990 film ‘The Hunt for Red October’ which is based upon a Tom Clancy novel of the same name. However, instead of an elusive soviet submarine, it is ‘Santa Claus’ that we are hunting for; he is the man in ‘Red’ in December.

This is a link into one of the main events at our ‘Spark‘ Christmas Bonanza. We will be holding an epic ‘Hunt for Santa‘ game, and it is not to be missed. So please do come along to ‘Spark‘ if you are aged between 11 and 18 years of age. For more details see our ‘What a Bonanaza’ blog post.

I’m also writing the post to speak about the real ‘Santa Claus‘, not the jolly red elf of our present day traditions, but St Nicholas, the real inspiration behind the myth.

The real St Nicholas was a Christian that lived in Asia Minor during the 4th century A.D. He was also called Nicholas of Bari or Nikolaos of Myra and was in-fact the Bishop of Myra. HE was born on 15th March 270 A.D. in Patara, Lycia and died on 6th December 343 A.D. He is the patron saint of children, sailors, repentant thieves, merchants, brewers, archers, students and pawnbrokers in various cities and countries around Europe. The whole gift giving aspect surrounding this saint is from his most famous exploit of surreptitiously providing the money needed for a wedding dowry for a poor man’s 3 unmarried daughters. In all of the variations of the stories he provides in different ways 3 purses of gold that he delivers into their house under the cover of darkness, in order for his generosity to remain secret. It is from this that we get the modern day story of ‘Santa’ delivering gifts to children on Christmas Eve.

One of his most famous exploits (thought said to be possibly apocryphal) is that he was said to have been so angry with the heretical presbyter Arius for his teaching about Jesus, that he hit him in the face.

St Nicholas is also called Nicholas the wonderworker due to all of the miracles that occur throughout his life as God answers his prayers. Such as the calming of the sea during a storm whilst he was on his way to Jerusalem and the bringing back to life of a sailor that had been killed during the aforementioned storm.

As you can see St Nicholas was a dedicated, if like all of us flawed, follower of Jesus and was passionate about the gospel, not only in word, but in deed. Not the mystical and magical man in a red suit that is portrayed in films at Christmas, but a servant of God that knew he was dependant on God for provision and life. A man who knew that the true gift of Christmas is not found in shiny paper under the Christmas Tree, but in a feeding trough in Bethlehem all those many years ago; Jesus – the Saviour of the world.

So this Christmas, may you have a blessed time, and if you have not received God’s greatest gift, Jesus; I pray that you do.

Have a great week-end, and don’t forget to come to ‘Spark‘.