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Hannah is 11 months old! It's hard to believe my littlest peanut has almost been with us one year!  God AMAZED us yesterday morning! We woke up to three emails from ABWE telling us we had three new monthly supporters, and combined they equal $95 a month pushing us up to 20% funded! We’ve only received one email at a time thus far, so yesterday was a pretty amazing morning! Praise the Lord!  We went with some special friends to see the Nutcracker Ballet over the weekend. Abbie LOVED it and asked if we could go watch it everyday. :)  Most Christians remember St. Nicholas for his commendable charity, but for a small number of us we can’t think of this jolly saint without remember how he slapped a third-century heretic. "Deck the halls?" Try deck the heretic.
The story goes that during the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) there was a debate over the divinity of Christ. Arius, a heretical bishop, was teaching that Christ was not divine, but rather just a creature. The council challenged Arius to defend his claims in front of his brother bishops, including jolly old St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas tried to listen patiently but he considered Arius’ proposal so radical, so heretical, that he could no longer contain himself. In the middle of Arius’ speech, St. Nicholas rose with a scowl, charged toward Arius, and slapped him in the face! The mental image of Santa Claus slapping Arius on the floor of the Council of Nicea with Emperor Constantine looking on has to fundamentally change the way one would ever see Santa Claus again. While we might not agree with his method, we certainly admire St. Nicholas’ passion for Christological doctrinal purity. We might not be going round punching heretics, but we should still be passionate about speaking the truth about Christ and making sure everyone knows the truth about Him! Theology is important. St. Nicholas knew it too. |
