3 minute read
Editorial
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Every year as they grew up, my two children would make a list for Santa of what they wanted for Christmas. It always made Santa’s job a little easier. I repeatedly told them that Santa could not bring everything on the list, but that he’d do his best to match some of their requests.
When she was five, our youngest, Juliana, carefully crafted the following: 1. 2.Barbies 3.Puzzle 4.Monopoly game
She carried the list around with her for a couple of days before I finally noticed something was amiss.
“Juliana, why did you leave the first space blank?”
“Daddy, how do you spell ‘real’?” she asked sweetly.
When I told her, she proceeded to fill in the blank with large capital letters— “A Real D-O-G.” I laughed because the previous Christmas, despite her entreaties, Santa had only brought her a stuffed animal. She clearly hadn’t forgotten.
Eventually, we did get a hamster, guinea pig and a dog, in that order, but that Christmas caused me to think about what we value. What is on our Christmas lists? What is it that will truly bring us joy?
Can I suggest flipping it around? Do we not all long for an encounter with “The Real G-O-D” this Christmas? Despite the pandemic, despite personal difficulties, despite the many pressures that face us today, we still have this one truth: Immanuel, God with us.
In his Christmas message, General Brian Peddle assures us that Jesus “can restore our souls when we are weary … provide an eternal perspective when the immediate is all-consuming … hold us and our world together when we and it are falling apart” (page 8). Commissioners Floyd and Tracey Tidd, together with divisional leaders, remind us that “the light has come” into our world (page 7). Donald Burke explores the significance of the name, Jesus (page 12). And our new columnist, Captain Sheldon Bungay, asks, “Do you hear what I hear?” (page 25).
May we be listening this Christmas for God’s gentle whisper of hope, even in a world of turmoil.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting light; The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight. GEOFF MOULTON
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Salvationist
is a monthly publication of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory Brian Peddle General Commissioner Floyd Tidd Territorial Commander Lt-Colonel John P. Murray Secretary for Communications Geoff Moulton Editor-in-Chief and Literary Secretary Giselle Randall Features Editor Pamela Richardson News Editor, Copy Editor and Production Co-ordinator (416-422-6112) Kristin Ostensen Associate Editor and Staff Writer Lisa Suroso Graphic Design Specialist Rivonny Luchas Digital Media Specialist Ada Leung Circulation Co-ordinator Ken Ramstead Contributor Agreement No. 40064794, ISSN 1718-5769. Member, The Canadian Christian Communicators Association. All Scripture references from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV) © 2011. All articles are copyright The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory and can be reprinted only with written permission. Subscriptions
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