-- Author Unknown
"Yes, Santa," he replied. "My sister,
Sarah, who is very sick," he said sadly.
Santa glanced over at the grandmother who was
waiting nearby, and saw her dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "She wanted to come with me to see you,
oh, so very much, Santa!" the child exclaimed. "She misses you,"
he added softly.
Santa tried to be cheerful and encouraged a smile to
the boy's face, asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas.
When they finished their visit, the Grandmother came over to help the child off
his lap, and started to say something to Santa, but halted. "What is
it?" Santa asked warmly.
“Well, I know it's really too much to ask you,
Santa, but..." the old woman began, shooing her grandson over to one of
Santa's elves to collect the little gift which Santa gave all his young
visitors. “The girl in the photograph
... my granddaughter .. well, you see ... she has leukemia and isn't expected
to make it even through the holidays," she said through tear-filled eyes.
"Is there any way, Santa ... any possible way that you could come see
Sarah? That's all she's asked for, for Christmas, is to see Santa."
Santa blinked and swallowed hard and told the woman
to leave information with his elves as to where Sarah was, and he would see what he could do.
Santa thought of little else the rest of that
afternoon. He knew what he had to do. "What if it were MY child lying in
that hospital bed, dying," he thought with a sinking heart, "this is
the least I can do." When Santa finished visiting with all the boys and
girls that evening, he retrieved from his helper the name of the hospital where
Sarah was staying. He asked the assistant location manager how to get to
Children's Hospital.
"Why?" Rick asked, with a puzzled look on
his face.
Santa relayed to him the conversation with Sarah's
grandmother earlier that day. "C'mon .... I'll take you there," Rick
said softly.
Rick drove them to the hospital and came inside with
Santa. They found out which room Sarah was in. A pale Rick said he would wait
out in the hall.
Santa quietly peeked into the room through the
half-closed door and saw little Sarah on the bed. The room was full of what
appeared to be her family; there was the Grandmother and the girl's brother he
had met earlier that day. A woman whom he guessed was Sarah's mother stood by
the bed, gently pushing Sarah's thin hair off her forehead. And another woman
who he discovered later was Sarah's aunt, sat in a chair near the bed with
weary, sad look on her face. They were talking quietly, and Santa could sense
the warmth and closeness of the family, and their love and concern for Sarah.
Taking a deep breath, and forcing a smile on his
face, Santa entered the room, bellowing a hearty, "Ho, ho, ho!"
"Santa!" shrieked little Sarah weakly, as she tried to escape her bed to run to him, IV tubes in tact. Santa rushed to her side and gave her a warm hug. A child the tender age of his own son -- 9 years old -- gazed up at him with wonder and excitement. Her skin was pale and her short tresses bore telltale bald patches from the effects of chemotherapy. But all he saw when he looked at her was a pair of huge, blue eyes. His heart melted, and he had to force himself to choke back tears. Though his eyes were riveted upon Sarah's face, he could hear the gasps and quiet sobbing of the women in the room. As he and Sarah began talking, the family crept quietly to the bedside one by one, squeezing Santa's shoulder or his hand gratefully, whispering "thank you" as they gazed sincerely at him with shining eyes.
Santa
and Sarah talked and talked, and she told him excitedly all the toys she wanted
for Christmas, assuring him she'd been a very good girl that year. As their
time together dwindled, Santa felt led in his spirit to pray for Sarah, and
asked for permission from the girl's mother. She nodded in agreement and the
entire family circled around Sarah's bed, holding hands. Santa
looked intensely at Sarah and asked her if she believed in angels.
"Oh, yes, Santa ... I do!" she exclaimed.
“Well, I'm going to ask that angels watch over you,”
he said. Laying one hand on the child's head, Santa closed his eyes and prayed.
He asked that God touch little Sarah, and heal her body from this disease. He asked that
angels minister to her, watch and keep her. And when he finished praying, still
with eyes closed, he started singing softly, "Silent Night, Holy Night
.... all is calm, all is bright." The family joined in, still holding
hands, smiling at Sarah, and crying tears of hope, tears of joy for this
moment, as Sarah beamed at them all. When the song ended, Santa sat on the side
of the bed again and held Sarah's frail, small hands in his own. "Now,
Sarah," he said authoritatively, "you have a job to do, and that is
to concentrate on getting well. I want you to have fun playing with your friends
this summer, and I expect to see you at my house at Mayfair Mall this time next
year!" He knew it was risky proclaiming that, to this little girl who had
terminal cancer, but he "had" to. He had to give her the greatest
gift he could -- not dolls or games or toys -- but the gift of HOPE.
"Yes, Santa!" Sarah exclaimed, her eyes
bright.
He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead and
left the room. Out in the hall, the minute Santa's eyes met Rick's, a look
passed between them and they wept unashamed. Sarah's mother and grandmother
slipped out of the room quickly and rushed to Santa's side to thank him.
"My only child is the same age as Sarah,"
he explained quietly. "This is the least I could do." They nodded
with understanding and hugged him.
One year later, Santa Mark was again back on the set
in Milwaukee for his six-week, seasonal job which he so loves to do. Several
weeks went by and then one day a child came up to sit on his lap. "Hi,
Santa! Remember me?!"
"Of course, I do," Santa proclaimed (as he
always does), smiling down at her. After
all, the secret to being a "good" Santa is to always make each child
feel as if they are the "only" child in the world at that moment.
"You came to see me in the hospital last
year!" Santa's jaw dropped.
Tears immediately sprang in his eyes, and he grabbed this little
miracle and held her to his chest. "Sarah!" he exclaimed. He scarcely
recognized her, for her hair was long and silky and her cheeks were rosy
-- much different from the little girl he had visited just a year before. He
looked over and saw Sarah's mother and grandmother in the sidelines smiling and
waving and wiping their eyes.
That was the best Christmas ever for Santa Claus. He
had witnessed - and been blessed to be instrumental in bringing about – this
miracle of hope. This precious little child was healed. Cancer-free. Alive and
well. He silently looked up to Heaven and humbly whispered, "Thank you,
Father.
The old man said, “Don’t go so far
as to say that. Simply say that the
horse is not in the stable. This is the
fact; everything else is a judgment.
Whether it is a misfortune or a blessing I do not know, because this is
just a fragment. Who knows what is going
to follow it?”
People laughed at the old man. They had always known that he was a little
crazy. But after fifteen days, suddenly
one night the horse returned. He had not
been stolen, he had escaped into the wild.
And not only that, he brought a dozen wild horses back with him. Again the people gathered and they said, “Old
man, you were right. This was not a
misfortune, it has indeed proved to be a blessing.” The old man said, “Again you are going to
far. Just say the horse is back, who
knows whether it is a blessing or not?
It is only a fragment. You read a
single word in a sentence – how can you judge the whole book?”
This time the people did not say
much, but inside they knew that he was wrong.
Twelve beautiful horses had come…
Of course it was a blessing!
The old man had an only son who
started to train the wild horses. Just a
week later he fell from a horse and both his legs were broken. The people gathered again and again they
judged. They said, “Again, you proved
right! It was a misfortune. You only son has lost the use of his legs,
and in your old age he was your only support.
Now you are poorer than ever.”
The old man said, “You are obsessed
with judgment. Don’t go that far. Say only that my son has broken his
legs. Nobody knows whether this is a
misfortune or a blessing. Life comes in
fragments and more is never given to you.”
It happened that after a few weeks
the country went to war, and all the young men of the town were forcibly taken
for the military. Only the old man’s son
was left, because he was crippled. The
whole town was crying and weeping, because it was a losing fight, and they knew
most of the young people would never come back.
They came to the old man and they said, “You were right, old man, this
has proved to be a blessing. Maybe your
son is crippled, but he is still with you.
Our sons are gone forever.”
The man said again, “You go on and
on judging. Nobody knows! Only say this, that your sons have been
forced to enter into the army, and my son has not been forced. But only God knows whether it is a blessing
or a misfortune.”
“Judge ye not” – otherwise you will
never become one with God. With
fragments you will be obsessed, with small things you jump to conclusions. Once you judge you have stopped growing.
Judgment means a stale state of mind. And mind always wants judgment, because to be
in process is always hazardous and uncomfortable. In fact, the journey never ends. One path ends, another begins. One door closes, another opens. You reach a peak, a higher peak is always
there. God is an endless journey. Only those who are so courageous that they
don’t bother about the goal but are content with the journey, content just to
live the moment and grow into it, only those are able to walk with God.
I have been passing along some thoughts over the last few days from Roberta Gilbert’s book, The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory, that show that our society today may be in crisis. Today, I would like to pass along one final thought on this (Again from Gilbert's book)…
How many people would it take, doing just one of the following -
- Connecting with their generations, eliminating family cutoffs
- Educating themselves as to the facts in our society – the regression (the social crisis)
- Becoming clear on their guiding principles, being guided by them instead of political correctedness or groupthink
- Taking a stand, after careful consideration
- Defining a self in their families
- Becoming principle-guided parents, rather than projecting a worried focus
- to bring the regression to an end? One can only guess how many it would take, but it is a fascinating question.
One of the concepts in Family Systems Theory is that the theory also works to affect the emotional processes in society as a whole, not just members of a family or work system. To support this concept on a society wide basis, Roberta Gilbert, in her book, “The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory,” Gilbert suggests that we are in a period of social regression. To support this, she brings out some interesting statistics:
In 1940 the teachers in California were polled to find out what they considered the most troublesome problems they faced. The results were: Talking, Chewing gum, Making noise, Running in the halls, Getting out of line, Wearing improper clothing, and Not putting paper in the wastebasket.
Again, in 1990, fifty years later, they were polled. This time the answers were quite different: Drug Abuse, Alcohol abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, Rape, Robbery, Assault.
In fifty years our society has changed a great deal if the schools are any indication.
Consider also that between 1963 and 1993 the crime rate went up 360%, youth crime is up 200%, teen pregnancy is up 600% and teen suicide is up 300% (now the second most important cause of death in teens, after accidents). One in five teens attempted suicide, single parents increased by 300%, SAT scores are down 7% and drug use is up over 1,000%.
These statistics show an overall deterioration in our society. If the theory is correct, and we are in a time of social regression, what can do about it? We’ll look at Gilberts ideas in tomorrow’s post…
Exodus 14:14
But we
saw in Exodus 14:5, “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had
fled [the Israelite people – the Egyptian slaves], Pharoah and his
officials changed their minds about them and said, ‘What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost
their service.’”
So
Pharoah pursued them, we heard the numbers of chariots, all of Pharoah’s army
was in pursuit of the Israelites. And
the Israelites were camped out along the Red Sea, seemingly trapped when the
army was approaching. If we kept reading
we would have seen the miraculous deliverance, the parting of the sea, the
Israelites crossing on dry ground, the Egyptian pursuit, the sea closing in
again, destroying the Egyptian army.
But I
want us to see tonight, is the last verse that I shared. This was part of the reading for last night’s
Prayer for Healing service, and it really stuck with me. The last verse read, “The
Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”
We saw
how anxious the Israelites were. They
were arguing with Moses, if you just left us alone in Egypt it would have been
better. We would much rather be slaves
then die in the desert. They were
fearful, scared, sure they were going to die.
And Moses said, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only be
still.” And the Lord did. And the Israelites were saved.
I want
to point that out because in our own lives we have plenty to be anxious
about. There are things that don’t look
so good, we don’t know how they might play out.
Health scares. Finances, the
stock market drops lower every day. Inflation
– the government says it’s 7 ½ %, but our chicken for our chicken BBQ is up
25%, gas, while coming down now, has doubled, up 100%. Groceries are more expensive every week. A whole lot more than 7 ½ % overall.
It can
seem like we’re fighting just to hold our own.
But remember what Moses said, “The Lord will fight for you; you need
only be still.” Trust in God, turn
everything over to Him, and be still.
Here is the devotion that I gave in this service...
Our gospel reading from John 13:1-17; 31b-35 stresses the washing of the feet. And a lot of churches, on this night, have a service that features, no pun intended, the washing of feet. Here’s my take on that, I don’t wash feet, not because I think that I’m at all above washing feet, but because I don’t see that, in this passage, as a lasting ordinance that Jesus wants us washing each other’s feet.
I think to understand what Jesus is doing here, we need to understand the context in which it happens. In the first century, there were no sidewalks. People walked on dirt roads that were often little more than footpaths or trails. And they were dusty. And they wore sandals when they walked, open sandals. They were designed to protect the soul of your feet, with little more than leather straps to hold them on. Open sandals. We still have similar things today.
But when you enter a home, you took your sandals off, because you don’t want to track all that dust into people homes. So you usually went barefoot inside. But the sandals didn’t keep your feet clean, the tops would get as dusty as the bottoms of your feet. So they often had servants to wash your feet as you entered someone’s home.
So we come to night of Jesus celebrating the Passover feast with his disciples. There were just the twelve disciples present, there weren’t any servants there. I understand that some of the disciples went on ahead to prepare the meal, that my interpretation. This wasn’t a restaurant, this was the upper room of someone’s house that Jesus was allowed to use. Nowhere does it say that the meal was prepared for them, in fact in Matthew 26:19, it says, “So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.”
My point in that is that it was just the disciples. Some of them went ahead and prepared the Passover meal, but no one thought about cleaning their feet. But this is a borrowed upper room, you want to keep it as clean as possible, So Jesus took advantage of the opportunity to teach them a lesson about serving one another. It’s interesting that while many churches think that Maundy Thursday is all about Jesus washing each others feet, John is the only one of the four gospels that tells about the feet washing.
And, interesting enough, John doesn’t mention communion, the Lord’s Supper isn’t mentioned at all in John’s gospel, while all three of the other gospels mention it, and don’t mention feet washing. To me, as I look at the things that happened at that Passover meal, I see communion as a lasting ordinance, and the washing of feet as just another lesson on how we should be serving one another.
So tonight, we’re emphasizing communion, or the Last Supper. We know from our Seder services in other years that communion wasn’t just given during any old meal. This was the Passover seder, where they remembered the exodus from Egypt, one of the greatest things to happen the Jewish people in the history of the Jewish people.
And during the meal, Jesus took symbols from the Passover, and applied them to himself. So that God’s people would remember Jesus. And monthly we come together at the table, and we eat bread, though it’s not unleavened bread, we break bread, or at least we did before Covid, and the bread, in the Passover was called the Afikomen, that term literally means “the one to come.”
It comes up in the seder early, when the host takes three pieces of unleavened bread, breaks the middle one in half, and tells the children to hide their eyes while he hides that piece of bread. Then he says these words, “The Afikomen will return to end our Passover Seder.” For thousands of years, the Jewish people have been uttering those words as they began their Passover celebrations. Jesus was the one who came, the Afikomen, who came to end their Passover Seders. They don’t do them anymore. Now, we remember Jesus, and his death on the cross for our sins, and we remember him through the Lord’s Supper, “in remembrance of me.”
Our first reading was from Exodus, and reminds us the requirements for the Passover. What they had to do on that first Passover. But it wasn’t just that. It was given as a lasting ordinance. They were to do it each year, to remember what God had done for them. That’s why we do communion, to remember what Jesus did for us.
In 1 Corinthians, we saw a familiar passage about the Lord’s Supper. Paul passed on that ordinance to the Gentile people in Corinth. They didn’t have the law, they didn’t have to observe the Passover, but Paul is telling them that they should be doing the Lord’s Supper, to remember what Jesus had done for them.
And we talked about the Afikomen already, represented by the bread, I want to talk about the cup next. Paul said, in verse 25, “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Back to the Passover Seder, if you remember that, after the supper, they had the third cup, there were four cups in the Seder.
The third cup was the cup of redemption, the reminder that God was going to redeem His people. Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. It was the cup of redemption for the Jewish people. In Jesus’ blood, the people of God find redemption. That’s the symbolism here. Jesus is the redemption of the people of God. In His shed blood, we find redemption.
Which brings us back to the feet washing, and the last reading from John. But at the end of chapter, they are still in the upper room, Judas had just left, and Jesus gives them a new command, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The foot washing was a way to show our love for others. He served as a servant, by washing their feet, now they’re told to go and serve one another. And love one another. And it’s through our service, and it’s through our love, that we show our faith to others.
