My older son lives in Belgium and introduced me to St. Nicholas Day. There he is a missionary to college students through the ministry of Students for Christ (SFC), the European version of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, a decades-old ministry of the Assembly of God on college campuses. It is parallel with Intervarsity and Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ).
My son’s recent photo of his three sons with their St. Nicholas Day shoes intrigued me.
They placed their shoes neatly in line on the night of December 6, each with a carrot for the horse of St. Nicholas. They are told at school that St. Nicholas will come by in the night on his horse and leave gifts in their shoes and that his horse will eat the carrot. School that day had been a virtual party.
St. Nicholas was a real person in history. The date of his death is documented as December 6, AD 343. See Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
Although my grandsons know it is all Make-Believe, they leave their shoes out that night with a carrot in anticipation of receiving their family-tradition gift of a new pair of pajamas (their mama’s idea). The -carrots are taken and returned to the refrigerator by some adult in the family.
Older children, or maybe an adult, could ask the children for evidence for such a story. For example, are there ever horse tracks in the dirt or snow? Are there ever horse droppings around? (Every parade-goer knows that horses always leave droppings behind.) Has anyone ever seen St. Nicholas? Or his horse? How does he have time to get to all the homes of young children in one night? How does he get his horse to the second floor of their apartment building? Does he squeeze his horse into the elevator? What if his horse weighs two tons? The elevator has a weight limit!
I thought of the contrast between the St. Nicholas story and true Christianity.
While the December 6 story raises questions that CANNOT be answered, true Christianity raises questions that CAN be answered, with evidence.
Again, I turned to the faithful acrostic RAMP to examine the evidence behind Christianity, given by Dr. Frank Barber in his gospel tract, “Got Life.” (Available online.)
R stands for the resurrection. Jesus is the only religious leader to be resurrected.
A stands for archaeology that always simply verifies the geographic places mentioned.
M stands for the miracles that Jesus did, even mentioned in secular history.
P stands for the fulfilled prophecies with vivid details given hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, prophecies of his life and death.
The upshot is that there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for the truth of Christianity and the Bible which should convince an open-minded skeptic to examine the Christian faith more closely.
A famous person who struggled with TRUTH and REALITY versus MYTH and FICTION was C. S. Lewis. He was willing to go where TRUTH led him. His struggle is well-known today and has even been dramatized. Here is the video link of that dramatization, a conversation with his also-famous friend J. R. R. Tolkien (author of Lord of the Rings) which brought him to his conclusion toward faith.
C. S. Lewis on myth:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/85-years-ago-today-j-r-r-tolkien-convinces-c-s-lewis-that-christ-is-the-true-myth/
The photo above comes from the last 2 lines of Lewis’ poem about the day that he shed unbelief and embraced the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ:
Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart.
The same decision is waiting for any open-minded person today. “Quick, quick, quick, quick! The gates are drawn apart.”