From January - December 2011 I'm going to be doing my devotions differently.  Instead of studying a small portion of Scripture in-depth each day as I've been recording on my Rachel's Reflections website I'm going to read through the Bible in a year!

This decision came about as a result of the "Find Someone" game we played in youth group in early November.  Greg gave everyone a list of "Find Someone" statements (i.e. "Find someone whose favorite color is pink."  "Find someone whose birthday is in November." "Find someone who is shorter than you." etc.) and everyone had to find people to sign under statements that applied to them. 

One of the statements was, "Find someone who has read the entire Bible," and of course the teens crowded around Greg and I to sign that statement.  The problem was I couldn't bring myself to sign under that statement.  I think that I've read through the entire Bible, but best case scenario  I read the entire Bible when I was forced to during Old Testament and New Testament survey classes in college and worst case scenario I've never read through the entire Bible.  I realized on that night that this was a huge problem.  How can I claim God's Word as my final authority and guide when I haven't even voluntarily read all of it?

So from January - December 2011 I have committed to reading through the Bible in a year.  I signed up with www.bibleinayear.org, so I will be emailed daily Bible readings (roughly three chapters per day) that will take me through the Bible chronologically over the next 365 days.

My hope is that over the next twelve months that I will learn much from reading God's word completely and focusing on the "forest" and not just the "trees" for a year.  I will be updating the "Devotions" page on Rachel's Reflections with book overviews as I finish each book of the Bible if you would like to follow my journey.

I would like to encourage each of you, have you read through the entire Bible?  If not, would you join me in reading through the Bible this year?  I know it will bless us both!  Today in preparation for this year long venture I will be reading Psalm 119 - His word is truly a beautiful guide for our lives and we should reflect upon it daily!

Santa Claus.  He's everywhere and as a parent he's an issue that can't be avoided.  Greg and I have talked a lot over the past few years about what we would tell our little ones about Santa Claus when the time came.  Neither of us wanted to lie to our children but neither of us wanted to demonize Santa either, so as of a few weeks ago we were still avoiding the entire issue of Santa Claus until Greg read a great article written my Mark Driscoll.  (Most of the below material has been taken from Mark Driscoll's article.)

The article explained that we have three choices when it comes to explaining Santa Claus to our children: 1) We can reject it (i.e. Satan Claus and telling our children he's a horrible lie meant to distract us from Jesus' birth), 2) We can receive it (i.e. basically the traditional telling our children Santa Claus is a jolly old man who leads a team of flying reindeer on Christmas Eve to deliver the toys his elves made), and 3) We can redeem it (i.e. telling our children the truth about St. Nicholas and allowing Santa Claus to remind us of him).

Greg and I have chosen to redeem Santa Claus.  We tell our kids that Santa Claus was a real person who lived a long time ago.  We explain that people dress up as Santa and pretend to be him for fun, kind of like how they dress up like a monkey, angel, doctor, etc. on Halloween.  (See my post on Redeeming Halloween for more on that topic.)  We explain how, in addition to the actual story of Santa, a lot of other stories have been added (i.e. flying reindeer, living in the North Pole, elves, delivering presents to every child in one night) so that the traditional Santa is a combination of true and make-believe stories.

We do not demonize Santa, but we do not lie to our children either.  We teach Christian and Abbie that they can always trust us and we will never lie to them, and we ask that they be honest with us and never lie.  Since we also teach our children that Jesus is a real person who did perform real miracles, our fear is that if we teach them fanciful, make-believe stories as truth, it could erode confidence in our truthfulness where it really matters.  So, we distinguish between lies, secrets, surprises, and pretend for our kids.  We ask them not to tell lies, but do teach them that some surprises (like gift-giving) and pretending (like dressing up) can be fun and should be encouraged.  We tell them the truth and encourage them to have fun watching Christmas shows on television and even sitting on Santa's lap for a holiday photo if they so desire. 

We read our children The Story of St. Nicholas: More than Reindeer and a Red Suit which was published by Voice of the Martyrs.  This books does an incredible job telling the truth about the Christian man who gave so generously!  (Voice of the Martyrs also published The Story of St. Valentine and the Story of St. Patrick.)

We also watch Veggie Tales "Saint Nicholas" A Story of Giving which explains the truth about Santa Claus in a way that little ones can understand.

Over the years we have also had to teach our children how to handle the fact that many of their friends believe in Santa Claus.  We have told our children not to correct their friends when they talk about Santa Claus because their parents are having fun allowing them to use their imaginations.  We have also told them that if a friend directly asks them whether or not they believe Santa Claus is real then they should tell the truth that St. Nicholas was a real man and Santa Claus helps remind us of him.

The truth is that the myths surrounding Santa Claus actually emanate from the very real person of Saint Nicholas.  It is difficult to know the exact details of his life with certainty, as the ancient records are sparse, but the various pieces can be put together as a mosaic of his life.

Nicholas was born in the third century in Patara, a village in what is now Turkey.  He was born into an affluent family, but his parents died tragically when he was quite young.  His parents had raised him to be a devout Christian, which led him to spend his great inheritance on helping the poor, especially children.  He was known to frequently give gifts to children, sometimes even hanging socks filled with treats and presents.

Perhaps his most famous act of kindness was helping three sisters.  Because their family was too poor to pay for their wedding dowry, three young Christian women were facing a life of prostitution until Nicholas paid their dowry, thereby saving them from a horrible life of sexual slavery.

Nicholas grew to be a well-loved Christian leader and was eventually voted the Bishop of Myra, a port city that the apostle Paul had previously visited (Acts 27:5-6).  Nicholas reportedly also traveled to the legendary Council of Nicaea, where he helped defend the deity of Jesus Christ in A.D. 325.

Following his death on December 6, 343, he was canonized as a saint.  The anniversary of his death became the St. Nicholas holiday when gifts were given in his memory.  He remained a very popular saint among Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with some two thousand churches named after him.  The holiday in his honor eventually merged with Christmas, since they were celebrated within weeks of one another.

During the Reformation, however, Nicholas fell out of favor with Protestants, who did not approve of canonizing certain people as saints and venerating them with holidays.  His holiday was not celebrated in any Protestant country except Holland, where his legend as Sinterklass lived on.  In Germany, Martin Luther replaced him with the Christ child as the object of holiday celebration, or, in German, Christkindl.  Over time, the celebration of the Christ child was simply pronounced Kris Kringle and oddly became just another name for Santa Claus.

The legends about Santa Claus are most likely a compilation of other folklore.  For example, there was a Siberian myth (near the North Pole) that a holy man, or shaman, entered people's homes through their chimneys to leave them mushrooms as gifts.  According to the legend, he would hang them in front of the fire to dry.  Reindeer would reportedly eat them and become intoxicated.  This may have started the myth that the reindeer could fly, as it was believed that the shaman could also fly.  This myth may have merged with the Santa Claus myth, and if so, explains him traveling from the North Pole to slide down chimneys and leave presents on fireplace mantles before flying away with reindeer.

These make-believe stories of Santa Claus were first brought to America by Dutch immigrants (yes - my hubby's descendants - shame on them ;).  In the early twentieth century, stores began having Santa Claus present for children during the Christmas season.  Children also began sending letters to the North Pole as the legends surrounding an otherwise simple Christian man grew.

In summary, Saint Nickolas was a wonderful man who loved and served Jesus faithfully.  So, we are going to gladly include him in our Christmas traditions to remind us of what it looks like for someone to live a life of devotion to Jesus and give generously.  We hope that through all this we will be honest, fun, and Christ-honoring parents.