Christmas Spirit Shake It Up
Do spiritual entities we believe in need corporeal presences?
Maybe ... then again, maybe not.
Over the years the Coke company has managed to come up with some excellent marketing campaigns. Recently they commissioned Train for a Christmas song to be used in some of their Christmas advertisements called Shake Up Christmas. You can purchase the whole song on I Tunes. I have featured a sound byte of some of the songs lyrics above with a little holiday ornament eye candy. I am doing this because I found this song plucked a huge chord within me.
"I know your out there. I hear your reindeer. I see the snow where your boots have been."
-Train Shake Up Christmas 2010
YES VIRGINIA THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS
It awakened my thoughts about a non-religious but spiritual figure, Santa Claus. Of course the modern Santa Claus is based on Sinterklaase who was created to honor Saint Nicholas. This means that Santa Claus is not entirely devoid of any religious significance. That said, the lyrics in the sound byte reflect on the fact that something can be quite real with or without clear physical proof.
The most read editorial in the world is the famous "Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus" see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_Virginia,_there_is_a_Santa_Claus
a brief excerpt from this stunning piece of writing:
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy" - Francis Pharcellus Church The Sun 1897
It is worth reading the whole editorial every once in awhile.
Whatever spiritual figure or figures you believe in, does it really matter if they actually had a physical presence?
Of course it matters. ... But ... then again, maybe not.
My young niece recently participated for the first time in her church's annual Children's Christmas Pageant by singing in her Junior Choir. Parents and relatives of the the young children participating in the Pageant are allowed to come to the dress rehearsal just before the service and therefore obtain front row seats in a church that will have standing room only by the time the actual pageant and service begin. Sitting through the dress rehearsal and than the actual Christmas Pageant and mass means you will be in church for about three hours. This gives you a lot of time to reflect on inspirational and spiritual things.
Just before the beginning of the service the ushers asked if all sitting but fit gentleman could give up their seats and stand along the walls of the church so that those who were older or infirm could be seated. Obviously this was a request that I could not resist but it turned out to have its own reward...
This is a very modern church which has dimensions side to side that are three times that of the distance from the front to back. It can hold at least five to six hundred people when not crowded. By standing up in the back I could see and marvel at the whole tightly packed assemblage of folks who had come out on a cold winter night to join together and practice their spiritual beliefs, confess their sins, and for at least an hour or two honor and share in the highest ideals of mankind.
THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE
Many modern Christian churches have included the practice of having members of the congregation shake hands and wish each other peace. On this Christmas eve the handshakes and greetings of peace from strangers reminded me of the story of the spontaneous Christmas truces that occurred along World War I trenches in 1914. Right in the middle of one of the most violent of modern wars the Christmas Spirit shone through and for one evening enemy combatants spontaneously sang carols to each other, exchanged gifts in no-man's land, played games of soccer, and and held joint memorial services for their recently dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
Does it really matter if our spiritual entities ever had a corporeal presence?
Maybe ... but maybe not.
