Happy Saturday Friends,
Here’s another story about Ol St. Nick. It’s one of the more well-known legends, but it’s pretty awesome and I know that one day I’ll share with my daughter when she no longer “believes in Santa” to tell her that, actually, Santa was a very real person and his spirit still infuses people all these years later.
If you’re interested in picking up this book I’m reading, check it out HERE.
Much love and more ☕️,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
In St. Nicholas' hometown of Myra there was a local big wig named Eustathios who supposedly accepted a bribe to sentence 3 innocent men to death. In other words, someone told him that they would pay him a large sum of money if he'd pin some sort of blame on these 3 guys and have them executed in front of the town.
"Done deal", he said.
Nicholas got wind of what was going on and immediately rushed into the center of town where he spotted an executioner with his sword raised in the air, ready to carry out the death sentence on these 3 innocent men.
As fast as he could, sources say, he rushed up to the executioner ...
Grabbed the sword out of his hand.
Untied the 3 men.
And set them free.
... while the executioner stood by dumbfounded, saying nothing.
News quickly traveled to Eustathios (the guy who took the bribe) and he bolted down to the center of town to see what was going on.
"What the ... ?"
"What's going on?"
"You guys had ONE JOB!"
As the streets were still buzzing with the story of what people witnessed that day, Nicholas saw Eustathios making his way through the crowd and went out to meet him, calling him and "evil man" and challenging him to repent and change his ways.
I love this story and one day when Jordan no longer "believes in Santa", I'll tell her this story of the real Santa, the real St. Nick and I'll ask her what it means to her.
"This story ... what's it mean to you, Jordan? Why do you think this story or legend or whatever has survived so many years? What's important about it?"
Who knows what she'll say ...
"I like how he protected those innocent guys."
"I think it's cool that he stood up to the bully."
"I wanna be like that."
Whatever she ends up saying, I'll be sure to remind her that every time she comes to the aid of the lonely kid at school or stands up to the playground bully or challenges the people around her to be better, to be ...
Kinder.
More graceful.
More inclusive.
More accepting.
More loving.
... she's tapping into the Spirit of Ol' St. Nick who was tapping into the Spirit of The Christ, the Spirit of the Divine.
Jesus said in Luke 4 that he came to "proclaim Good News to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recover the sight of the blind, set the oppressed free, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
"Nicholas did this with his life", I'll tell Jordan, "in instances like this one. And so may we go forth as a family this day and always and make our own stories that they'll tell legends about 2000 years from now."