the marinade

Maybe I’m a freak for the back page of the Herald, but it just seems that all the daily whimsical wonders of this page are the most real. I like more than the numerical sketches produced by ‘the numbers.’ I like the daily photo on the back page, the ‘big picture,’ because it lets me see something that I have missed out on, or something that I can expect to see in the future. The ‘Sideswipe’ column does the same thing, different but the same. It is a whimsical wonder, for me, and it has whimsical beauty. These little anecdotes let me share in people’s thoughts and experiences, to share things that I would have otherwise missed out on: It lets me laugh, get angry, sad, or happy, sometimes it even lets me do all of this at once.

In Thursday’s sideswipe there were a selection of letters (emails actually) written to Santa Claus. These letters all had a theme; some kids get the ‘season of good will’ idea. One child asked if he could give a present to the children in the poor countries, a pig or a cow. A similar letter ended with ‘I will not ask you for anything again if you can just help the little girl who sits on the road crying on the telly.’ Another child wrote, ‘Dear Santa, I don’t want much, just something nice for mum and something nice for me as we can’t afford Christmas this year and I know that upsets my mum but I am okay with it.’ These letters have whimsical beauty, they also let me laugh, be angry, sad, and happy.

There is so much good in this world. Christmas reminds me that this is because of Jesus, who has come and is here, in our midst. I see the truth and beauty of Jesus in the letters of these children, even if I wish that they were prayers to God rather than Santa. But these letters also remind me of a really important question: If Jesus is working and can be seen in the lives of these kids, and the selfless thoughts and actions of other people throughout the world who don’t know God, what is so special about being a Christian?

I have an idea about this, one that I borrowed from a book called Resident Aliens. My idea is that yes, there is lots of good in the world and in the lives and actions of people that- even if very Christ like- do not have a relationship with Jesus. I also think that the answer to this question has something to do with the big flow that I talked about yesterday. It is useful for me to think about this flow as a culture, there is good in this culture, but there is lots of bad too. As a Christian I am called to have a different culture, an alien culture. There may be some things that are shared between the two cultures; I think that this is all the goodness and truth. But having the culture of Jesus makes me different, it means that I no longer have to be part of the big flow that is responsible for all the bad in the world. The continued transformation that comes from having Jesus in my life, this holistic transformation (you can read about this in Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell), makes me different. The life of Jesus, God coming to earth, changed the course of history, he was different, and by having a relationship with him we are also made different, we are set apart.