Is Christmas about Santa?

"Tis the season to be jolly," so says the Christmas song, Deck the Halls. But what is in this season for us to be jolly? Is it the receiving of.gifts, the festivities of Santa Claus coming to town, or is it the gathering of a mass of people together to celebrate the birth of Christ? Here's taking a look at the origins of Santa Claus to understand the reason for this Christmas season.

Santa Claus is known by many names, including Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, or just ‘Santa'. He is the figure in most of Western cultures described as the one bringing.gifts on the eve of Christmas Day. Saint Nicholas is believed to be the youngest bishop in the history of the church who was well known for his benevolence in the 4th century as the one who cared for needy children and poor maidens. He was persecuted and imprisoned with many other Christians during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian and was released and honored when Constantine the Great established the Christian Church as the official religion.

Two hundred years after his death, Saint Nicholas became a great figure in Christian Legend, and Justinian, the last Roman emperor in the East, built a church in honor of Nicholas in Constantinople. A day was set aside to celebrate the feast of Nicholas in honor of his benevolence on December 6, naming it as Saint Nicholas Day. In certain countries, this festival has been assimilated to Christmas, partly because Saint Nicholas Day is very near to Christmas and partly because of some Protestant hostility toward the worship of the saints in some parts of the world. After the feast of Saint Nicholas had been moved forward and identified with Christmas, some of these countries felt the real patron of the day and Giver of.gifts should be Christ Himself, hence the birth of Kris Kringle in popular German, meaning Christ Child. Among some of the German people in America, however, the legend of Santa Claus continue to survive, and Kris Kringle evolved into a combination of Santa Claus and the Christ Child.

In the 19th century, political cartoonist Thomas Nast of the United States popularized Santa Claus as the fat jolly man in red coat and trousers with white cuffs and collar, and a black leather belt with boots. This portrayal of Santa was reinforced through song, radio, television, and films. In the American version, Santa was said to be living in the far north or the North Pole. In the United Kingdom of Europe, however, Father Christmas was said to live in Lapland. Blending local folklore from Nordic countries, Saint Nicholas was also said to be bringing.gifts with the Yule Goat, which gradually became the elves, the ones said to be responsible for making the toys of Santa.

This combination provides a summarized idea of how Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus from the earliest times, and the birth of the elves. The mystification of Santa flying through the sky with reindeers on a sleigh is therefore a concept not of Christian origins, but of stories belonging to countless fairy tales about elves, gnomes, spirits, and hobgoblins.

In understanding Christmas, therefore, we must return to the origins of Christmas celebration. The Bible states it clearly, that the reason for this season of Christmas is the birth of God the Word, Who became flesh to dwelt among us, the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Christmas is therefore about Christ-mass, the gathering of a mass of people to celebrate Christ's birth.

Seafood @ Danga Bay, JB

Attended a wedding dinner yesterday evening at Grand Straits Garden Seafood Restaurant 新湖滨花园海鲜楼 in Johor Bahru @ Danga Bay.

Snapping Out Sad Memories

Home coming for Christmas is a great joy to many, yet to some, it may be a chore, a yearly routine of time wasted in meaningless discussion, or a gathering of memories of things past, of good and bad, happy and sad, pleasant and unpleasant all mingled together.

Memories of unpleasant past tend to linger on in our minds long after the event has taken place, and if we fail to snap out such bitter memories, they can affect how we live our daily lives. Whether it be the lost of someone we love, the prolong caring for someone disabled, a broken trust, or a failed relationship, all these memories of painful times can haunt us if we do not handle them properly.

Let us take a few moments to examine ourselves. When we reflect upon our past, do we harbor bitterness or unhappiness within us? Do we still question God as to why it had happened? If the answer is yes, then it means we need help, because harboring unhappiness in our minds and hearts is not good, and the way we handle unhappy memories will determine how our lives become in the future, of joy or sorrow, of victory or defeat.

A good example of how we should handle unhappy memories is to follow Joseph, the son of Jacob. Instead of blaming God for all the unhappy things that happened in his life, Joseph chose to see circumstances as God's way of leading him to the right path in fulfilling God's plan for his life. This may be seen from the way Joseph revealed himself to his brothers while in Egypt.

"Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. (Genesis 45:5 NAS)

Joseph, in forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery, did not blame them for what they had done, because he knew it was part of God's plan to lead him to where he was to preserve the lives of many.

If we, like Joseph, can see our lives the way he sees his, we will be able to understand that circumstances in life are one of God's ways in molding His chosen people for His purpose. Understanding this, is the first step to realizing God’s guiding hands on our lives, and this should help us learn to let go memories of our painful past, to let it be just memories, without the pain. We will not question God as to why certain things happen the way it happened, but we will be assured that whatever had happened or will happen is part of God's plan for our lives. Once we understand this and follow how Joseph handles unpleasant memories in his life, we will then be able to put in perspective how we should view our unhappy past, and move forward to live our lives abundantly, according to the will of God.

In seeing God as playing a part in the circumstances of our lives, we should therefore, like Joseph, view events in our lives as God's way of teaching and molding us for His work, in leading us to the paths He wants us to go, to fulfill His purpose for our lives. Knowing this should help us view circumstances from the correct perspective and begin the process of healing within our hearts and minds in snapping out bitterness from our memories.

Forgive us, O Lord, for harboring bitter memories of our past and for continuing to question You as to why unhappy events happened in our lives. Teach us Lord to see those events as part of our training for your service, and direct us in the right path to fulfill Your will for our lives, to learn to be like Joseph, to see circumstances as a way of Your leading, and snap out all bitterness from the memories of our unpleasant past.

Christmas Cooking and Feasting

Some of us have just celebrated Thanksgiving with feasting, and it's that time of the year once again when all of us will soon come together to enjoy Christmas feasting as well, yet not everyone in the world has this same privilege. While some may complain about the preparation, the cooking and the baking, many like me who knows next to nothing about cooking and baking, often just sit around in expectancy to a feast in celebration of our Lord's birthday.

The Bible mentioned a great deal about feasting, but very little about cooking, except maybe for what is implied of Martha's distraction with her preparation when the Lord visited her home, and of another occasion when she prepared a supper for the Lord (Luke 10:38-42; John 12:2). In the Old Testament, the Bible mentioned many feasts, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of the Harvest, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), and Feast of the Passover. Some of these feasts are still being celebrated today by Jews and by Christians in various parts of the world.

The Feast of Booths, for example, is being observed by some 50,000 Christians, according to an article at the web site of Wikipedia. This Feast, in some places in the world, is even declared as a Christian holiday, much like the Lord's birthday. The Book of Zechariah mentioned about this Feast as part of a prophecy of our Lord's return (Zechariah 14). Biblical feasts, such as this, are usually observed in honor of God to remember what He has done for His people. Likewise, when we celebrate Christmas with feasting, we must also remember the reason for our celebration -- the birth of Christ, born to die for our sins and to set us free from spiritual death.

While it is absolutely true that all of us who participate in the feasting appreciate and are grateful to the ones who prepare the Christmas feast out of love, in suffering and hardship to cook and to bake, we must above all things, always remember the purpose of our celebration. Christmas is indeed an occasion deserving of a great celebration with feasting, cooking, and baking, but we, who are the ones who prepare the food, and the ones who feast on the food, must always do it out of love and appreciation, not only to one another, but also to the Lord, Who is the reason we are celebrating the occasion. Let us all, therefore, when we eat of the food, the turkey and ginger bread, the delights of the stomach and appetites, remember that it is because of Jesus we are cooking and feasting on this joyous occasion.

Teach us, O Lord, as we celebrate Your birthday with joy and feasting, to remember You, the reason for our celebration, to appreciate, love, and cherish the ones who work so hard to prepare the feast, to cook and to bake, in love and charity, so that we may feast with joy and gaiety, with appreciation and without gluttony.

Beyond Christmas Cards

According to various sources¹ of information from the Internet, the custom of sending Christmas cards began in Britain around 1840 when the 'Uniform Penny Post' was first introduced to public postal deliveries, helped by the new railway system which enabled the public postal service in the 19th century. The Uniform Penny Post was a postal system that used a uniform rate of one penny to deliver normal letters of weight not exceeding half an ounce for any local post. This was how the prepaid postage stamp came to be established, which till this day is still being used by many postal systems around the world.

Following the introduction of the Penny Post postal system, Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman and prominent innovator of the 1800s who was also the person who modernized the British postal system, commissioned London respected illustrator and artist John Calcott Horsley in the summer of 1843 to design an impressive card for that year's Christmas, one that he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a merry Christmas. The word 'merry' was used in those days as a spiritual word for 'blessed' as in ‘merry old England’ and that was how the first Christmas card was born.

Thirty years later, the idea of Christmas cards caught on with the Americans when Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany, began publishing the cards in 1875 and earned the title 'father of the American Christmas card.' Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually just within the United States, and Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year.

Long before the idea of a Christmas card was even conceived, people were already exchanging handwritten holiday greetings, first in person, then via post, much like the way the Apostle Paul sent his greetings in his epistles (Philippians 4:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). Paul wrote the greetings with his own hand as a distinguishing mark in his letters, and such greetings had been a source of encouragement to many in building ties and relationships beyond the boundaries of different churches, cultures and geographical separators, in and off festive seasons. Given such richness of blessings deriving from written words of greetings, we should therefore continue with this tradition and not neglect reaching out to people through this mode of communication, whether it be by snail mail greeting cards or online e-cards, especially to the ones whom we may not be able to meet up due to distance constraints, or who may be faraway, overseas, or in another town.

This Christmas, therefore, let us rethink how we should rekindle our interest in sending out Christmas cards to greet and bless people. Do we know of a missionary who needs encouragement, or someone who needs cheering up, or a friend who needs the Lord? Remember, we can do our part in making this a special Christmas for them, and we can touch some hearts by simply adding a few words of our own to spice up the card with sincerity and truth to show we care. May God bless the sender and recipient of Christmas cards!

Dear Lord, help us in our haste not to forget the people You love, the missionaries, the pre-believers, our friends, colleagues and relatives. Teach us Lord to pen down meaningfully words of encouragement and care in adding these words to our Christmas cards. Do not let us take for granted what we can do through greeting cards such as these, in blessing each and everyone who receives the card, to let them know the special Someone who cares enough to come from heaven to earth to save us all.


¹ SOON Online Magazine; The Great Idea Finder; Wikipedia (Accessed on November 22, 2008).

Christmas 2008 @ Orchard

Song Lyrics: I Will Lift My Eyes

I Will Lift My Eyes - Bebo Norman
Written by Bebo Norman and Jason Ingram
From the album Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

God, my God, I cry out
Your beloved needs You now
God, be near, calm my fear
And take my doubt

Your kindness is what pulls me up
Your love is all that draws me in

I will lift my eyes to the Maker
Of the mountains I can’t climb
I will lift my eyes to the Calmer
Of the oceans raging wild
I will lift my eyes to the Healer
Of the hurt I hold inside
I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to You

God, my God, let Mercy sing
Her melody over me
God, right here all I bring
Is all of me

‘Cause You are and You were and You will be forever
The Lover I need to save me
‘Cause You fashioned the earth and You hold it together, God
So hold me now


© 2006 Appstreet Music (ASCAP) / New Spring (ASCAP). All rights for the world on behalf of Appstreet Music (ASCAP) administered by New Spring (ASCAP)/ Peertunes, Ltd./GrangeHill Music/J Ingram (SESAC)

P.S. This song has been on my mind over the last few days.

Boring or Abundant Life

Some people see life as a boring routine, much like what is shown in the following video clip.

Others see life as a game, a stage play where a person fights his or her way through different stages in life to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming rich and successful, or a meaningless journey beginning from infancy and ending with death, where nearing the end of the road is a status of non-entity and the dependency on others for support before dying.

Jesus, in the Gospel of John, said He has come that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). What do we understand by living an abundant life? Is it living a life of riches and abundance, or is it living life abandoned of riches?

I used to live a relatively good life before, with more than enough material abundance to satisfy my wants and occasional indulgence on luxuries. God, however, has a higher calling for me to live a different kind of abundant life, not of the riches of the world, but of riches built on the foundation of solid rock.

After going through different stages in life, I have learnt that abundant life does not mean to live in riches, neither does it mean to live in deprivation, but rather it is to live for the Lord in all circumstances – for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health – to stay faithful and be a good steward of God's providence and resources. This, I believe, is the true meaning of living an abundant life, a life dedicated for the purpose of God, where only by serving Him can we truly be satisfied, not according to the measurement of riches in this world, but according to the providence of God in living a life of contentment and sufficiency.

SingTel Grid Girls Photo Gallery

SingTel Grid Girls @ MediaCorpTV Buzz

Misunderstandings

I am not sure why I am constantly being misunderstood.

Months ago, at a family dinner, when I asked for the amount I have to pay to split the bill among us siblings, my brother misunderstood me for being calculative and not willing to pay for his children's portion of the cost.

Today, I wrote an email to an administrative support staff of an organization to explain the reason for the many queries raised by me recently concerning errors at their web site, and to apologise for the inconveniences I may be causing them. The reply from the staff was for me to be patient and to understand the need for time. The intent of my email was to explain and apologise, but the staff misunderstood me as chasing them for faster support. I see no point in sending another email to explain further, as I believe they have received enough of my emails to get sick of me. So much for trying to be nice.

God help me ... I am so misunderstood!

What's My Personality Type?

I Am An ENFJ (Extraversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Judging)

The Giver

You strive to maintain harmony in relationships, and usually succeed.

Articulate and enthusiastic, you are good at making personal connections.

Sometimes you idealize relationships too much - and end up being let down.

You find the most energy and comfort in social situations ... where you shine.

In love, you are very protective and supporting.

However, you do need to "feel special" - and it's quite easy for you to get jealous.

At work, you are a natural leader. You can help people discover their greatest potential.

You would make a good writer, human resources director, or psychologist.

How you see yourself: Trusting, idealistic, and expressive

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Bossy, inappropriate, and loud

What's Your Personality Type?

No Right to Exercise Rights

Have you ever encounter having certain rights, yet being unable to exercise them? I think most of us have.

Take the example of a pedestrian crossing a traffic light. The traffic lights just turned green, but the pedestrian is unable to cross the road because a slow heavy vehicle is making its U-turn, so the pedestrian has to wait until the driver completes his turning, by which time the traffic lights may already be blinking or turning red. While the pedestrian has the right of way to cross the road, he has to wait in order to preserve his own life.

Take another example of feedback by citizens. As citizens, we often voice our concerns over certain issues, but the law on these issues often still gets passed against our wishes, simply because while we have rights to feedback, we do not have rights to make political decisions.

What about at our workplace? As workers, we have the right to reject our bosses' instructions, but we risk losing our jobs as a result.

All these add up to one point. We must all know whether it is right or wise to exercise one's rights in different situations. Making decisions about exercising rights can sometimes be an advantage and at other times disadvantage. Giving away our rights sometimes help resolve entanglement, and if not exercising our rights makes a vast difference between building or breaking important relationships, let us all learn to make the right decisions.

Saving the Earth is Difficult

Go green. Use fan rather than air-con. Save the earth!

This is easier said than done. For the last two nights, I have been without air-con because it was down, and I have not been sleeping well, very much like a panda with dark rings around my eyes at this time.

In reality, all of us have grown too dependent on conveniences offered by the world, and this dependency has come to the point of no return. We cannot live without conveniences, and all the more so with global warming, because it is quite impossible to do anything enthusiastically without the comfort of air-conditioning these days. Green proponents have suggested slowing down the process by taking actions to go eco-friendly, but in reality, it is quite impossible. What can we really do or how much can we do to save the earth by going eco-friendly?

Take Singapore for example. Once a month, the supermarkets do away with plastic bags, and business is NO longer as usual. This is by no means the fault of consumers. While the green proponents suggest consumers to do away with plastic bags, they appear to forget that near each HDB rubbish chute is a sign that states, 'Please bag your waste before throwing'. How can anybody expect consumers to do away with plastic bags if they are expected to put their waste into plastic bags before throwing down the rubbish chute? Unless someone can offer a better alternative or a solution, propositions to quit using plastic bags are of no use to anyone.

Maybe you have something to say about this? Let me know what you think. Share your thoughts here.

Breakfast @ Toast Box

Wanna have breakfast with me? ;p

Here's my favourite breakfast with ...

Teh Siu Tai @ Toast Box!

People I Avoid

Three groups of people I always try to avoid or overtake, especially when in a rush, running late, or in a crowd.

First, people with gadgets. These are the people who are on mobile phones, listening to mp3/4 players, playing Sony p2p gamer, or the likes.

Second, people with prams, trolleys, or children.

Third, people of a particular ethnic group with cultural practices that tend to be oblivious to people around them and seemingly always blocking others from moving forward.

I may sound like one who is being critical or harboring prejudices, but it is the truth and the facts of my life. For me, avoiding or overtaking them not only guarantees earlier arrival at destinations, but also ensures time saved with faster pace, that is, as a pedestrian on the walkways, minus hazards from bicycles.

Not the Destination But the Journey

"It's not the result that is important. It's the process you go through, the things you learn along the way that makes you the person you are."

Have you ever heard this statement before? If you have not, hear it from me - it is true!

Over the last three years, God has been teaching and molding me to understand what it means to do my best, and let Him do the rest. Our lives are in the Potter's hands, and it is not up to us to understand why many things in our lives do not turn out the way we want them to be. We often go through long processes to work towards a goal to achieve something, but sometimes at the end of it all, that something may turn out to be impractical, inapplicable, or does not fall through as is intended for, or in the way you hope it to.

Take for example a book you are writing which you hope to make known to the world, but somewhere along the way, something happened that requires you to abandon your writing permanently. How would you feel? What if, as an employee, you have worked extremely hard for a project, and just when you are ready to launch the end product, you are told by your boss that the project has been abandon? How will you react? Do you blame God for not letting you achieve what you have set out to accomplish, or do you see God's way of molding you through the whole process, so that you are ready whenever called for to do the task for someone else, or for the purpose of God?

Many of us live our lives believing 'what we do is what we get', but in God's equation, what we do may not necessary be what we will receive at times. Although, there is much truth about reaping what you sow, and being rewarded when you do good, or be punished when you do evil (2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:8), it is ultimately up to God to decide what is best for you and I. Moses' life is a good example of what this means. He has to go through the wilderness as a shepherd before he is ready to do the task of God, even though long before that he feels ready to do the task as a prince.

What we need to do therefore is to realize our place on earth. Our task is to do our part in the process, to learn what we need to learn as we are molded in the Potter's hands, leaving God to decide on the result.

I [Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7 NAS)

Best of Eastern Europe

The Holocaust

Hilter will always be remembered in history for the many killings and pain he inflicted on people, especially the Jews, but how many people know what Germany would be like today if not for him?

One of the things he did which he meant for evil, was to build good transportation, which he purposed for the extension of his conquest and kingdom. This same transportation today serves well for the Germans and the international market in introducing trade beyond boundaries, to extend reliable products created by the highly skilled German in their area of expertise: science and technology.

Food for Thought
A lesson we can learn from this is that what man has intended for evil, God can use it for good. Sometimes we may see the pain while going through, and we may fail to understand why things happen the way they do, yet in time to come, we can be assured it may be meant for good. If we live our lives with this in mind, knowing that we are just a passerby on earth, intended for eternity, then we should live each day meaningfully, to fulfill our purpose here on earth, within this short span of life we have, to build what is eternal, rather than what is temporal.

Epilogue
I have just returned from Eastern Europe and had the opportunity to visit the world's largest concentration camp at Oswiecim of Krakow in Poland where the Jews and other people of various nationalities were tortured by Hilter's men during the Holocaust. The cruelty and the sight of the place brought about these thoughts which I have penned in this blog.

Long Queue Every Morning

Not the longest queue yet, but this is the regular sight you can see every morning between 8am to 9am below the MRT track af Jurong East station.

The queue is for the shuttle bus service to International Business Park (IBP), and on certain days, it can stretch all the way to the next road junction, sometimes under scorching sun, sometimes superficial rain. On a day when the rain gets too heavy, the queue rearranges itself under the shelter beneath the MRT track in squeezy zig-zags that often give queue-jumpers an opportunity to skip the queue within the already stifling crowd.

Such is the situation workers at IBP face every day, and on an extremely hot morning, this can be unbearable. Is it, therefore, good enough reason and the right time for the relevant authorities to start looking into how this painful daily routine may be solved, and consider the provision of a sheltered path for these sufferers?

read more ...

Love, Life, and Friendship

1. Love without Measure
2. Don't Look for Faults
3. Give and Take
4. Learn from Disappointments
5. No Going Back ... Just Move Forward

6. Understand the Purpose within Ups and Downs

7. Stay Happy Always

Modern Kampong

Up north in Singapore where I stay, is a canal that stretches across the estate where I live. The pictures below show the kind of environment and surroundings I pass by everyday, which I seldom pay attention to. Beautifully swampy, don't you think? Does it look like a modern kampong to you?

People in Singapore are always too busy to appreciate their surroundings, and even though pictures such as the following depict a sense of serenity, most of us don't even notice how nice God's creation can be, to take time to appreciate nature, before global warming takes them all away!

Learn, therefore, to appreciate what God has given us, for without green, there is no nature.

A View of My Daily Surroundings

CNY for the Non-Nuclear Family

Before going into the details of what it means for a non-nuclear family to face the Lunar New Year, here are a few things that need to be first explained and defined.

The term 'nuclear family' refers to "a couple and their dependent children, regarded as a basic social unit" as defined by the Oxford Compact Dictionary. A non-nuclear family therfore refers to a couple without dependent children. CNY refers to Chinese (Lunar) New Year, the time of the year whereby many, if not all, Chinese come together as a family to celebrate the new year over fifteen days following the lunar calendar, with visitations to many relatives, and to give away 'ang pows' (red packets) containing money to their unmarried children.

Such a joyous occasion calls for the reunion of the family for a time of feasting, usually on the eve of the CNY or earlier. CNY is therefore a time of celebration especially for the Chinese nuclear family, but to the non-nuclear family, it is not unusual to see them away or out of town, seemingly to avoid the festivities, which often is misunderstood as anti-social. The truth however is however far from what most people think or imagine. To the non-nuclear family, CNY fesitivities are not always a joyous occasion, and there are valid reasons why this is so.

Take the example of the reunion dinner. Suppose the gathering is made up of the parents, four brothers and sisters with their spouses, with three of having grand children. The one without children are often seen as a family unit and the cost of a dinner is usually equally divided between the brothers and sisters with inclusion of the parents portion. This will mean that the one without children will also be paying for the cost of food consumed by the children of the other three, and this amount can often add out to a few hundred dollars.

To the non-nuclear family, ang pows are given away to the children of the other three with no returns, simply because they do not have children to receive any, and this again adds up to another sum of money. All these disadvantages add together however are not all the non-nuclear family has to faced. The real reason why CNY festivities are a turn-off to them is actually related to people, the relatives, and what they say. Constantly, the non-nuclear family is asked by relatives as to why they are without kids and as to when they are going to have kids. Procreation is an expectation in the Chinese tradition, and without kids, a family is seen as incomplete or incompetent. Regardless whether the couple choose not to have kids or whether they are unable to have kids due to whatever reason, it is unacceptable to these relatives, and with piece of news, the mouths often spread to the whole community of relatives with gossipings, which sometimes hurt painfully for the non-nuclear family.

These are the real reasons why non-nuclear family runs away from festivities that require the meeting up with relatives. Therefore, if anyone chooses to point a finger to say a non-nuclear family is an anti-social family, think again, because such things are not for us to say. Be it nuclear or otherwise, let us learn to mind our own business and let the family of two live their lives to the fullest.