Faith

What would life be like without traditions? Particularly at Christmas? On September 21, 1897, Francis P. Church, an editor at The New York Sun, wrote a letter to a young lady who wondered about on particular tradition of the season. Church’s classic response to Virginia – “yes Virginia” – provides soothing words to a sometimes cynical world!

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

“Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?” Virginia O’Hanlon, 115 West Ninety-fifth Street.

“Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

“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. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. . . . The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.

“Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?

“Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

The songs we sing. The movies we watch yet another year. The visits to relatives. The same meals we’ve eaten for as long as we can remember. The candlelight church service. Traditions. Oh, they can drive us a bit crazy and might even feel a little bit boring at times. But they do point to the “unseeable” and help us experience anew the “supernal beauty and glory beyond.” Traditions are one of the sweetest blessings of Christmas.

 

Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.

There is a simple attitude that determines in our own minds whether we are rich or poor, blessed or cursed, and fundamentally positive or negative about life. To make that enormous of a difference, that attitude must be incredibly powerful. And it is. That attitude is gratitude.

One person gets a job and is thrilled to be a contributing member of a team—and to be paid for it to boot. Another person gets the same job with the same company and with the same pay and benefits and feels cheated. One person literally has a great job and the other has an equally crummy job. Why? The difference is an attitude of gratitude.

One teen looks under the Christmas tree, finds a simple and thoughtful gift from her mom, and knows she is loved; all that another teen can think about as he tears the glossy wrapping paper from the box is the new smartphone model he didn’t get. She had a great Christmas morning and got absolutely everything she wanted; he had a lousy Christmas and didn’t get anything good. Again the only difference was gratitude.

After a long pregnancy that generated more questions than congratulations; that nearly led to a marriage ending before it started; that included a painful and arduous journey; that culminated in her son being born in conditions fit for animals but not for humans, how did Mary respond? Luke tells us that she “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (2:19). In Bethlehem, among the animals, she found joy. She could have complained that God was doing nothing good for her, that her husband was a lousy provider, that the innkeeper should be put in prison for denying her a bed in the house, but instead she declared the “great things” God had done (Luke 1:49).

This central Christmas story—and the joys and challenges of our modern holiday—remind us that gratitude changes everything. Whether there are gifts stacked to the ceiling with your name on them or you aren’t sure anyone is going to give you anything, stop and give thanks to God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. You’ll receive a special blessing in your spirit and discover you have everything you need.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17