Today’s Santa Claus comes from kit #4889 and can be viewed/ordered here.
Some would argue that Santa Claus doesn’t belong with the Nativity set. I read a valid point this week that if we put Santa and baby Jesus side by side as equally worthwhile symbols of Christmas, then when children grow older and realize that Santa doesn’t exist, they will assume the same is true of Jesus. I would also argue that Santa doesn’t need to be part of our religious rituals, but I felt that with this set, I could put Santa and St. Nicholas side by side and use them to paint a fair picture of where the story of Santa comes from. Santa exists because of Jesus. The original gift-giving that inspired today’s frenzy was initiated by a man motivated by Jesus’ teachings.
Day 23 – Malachi 3: 1-6 (TNIV)
1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. 5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
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