Resurrecting the Righteous Feast

Often during the holiday season, we think not only of our dearest and loved ones, but in the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we often think of those who seem as though they have no families, have no mothers they could go home to for the holidays or daughters that would fly into town to visit. Often we think of the homeless as well, who I have identified with ever too often. Everyday I walk through downtown, I get an average of 16 to 20 “Do you have any spare change?” responses, and ever so often I’m just grief-stricken I don’t have any change to offer them, because most of the faces I seem look genuine and you could see the bloodstains in their eyes, with an honest, gravid stare.



All at once, while we think of those who have fewer, they’re often taken for granted all the same. Job 29:12 says "I rescued the poor who cried for help". We must awaken more to the cries of the poor not just as a nation, but in this world. Each day I take my magnaminity mission to heart, and it is not just a physical routine I abide by, it is my spiritual experience, my religious experience. In Proverbs 19:17, it reads, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.” I truly believe this with all my heart, for if I alone get that warm smile after seeing an orphaned child get that gift he had been dreaming of so long or when an elderly citizen feels comforted during the otherwise lonesome times at a community center when a high school student or girl scout comes to visit, imagine just what God must be thinking.



Don’t get me wrong here. I believe it is a wonderful thing to purchase gifts or your loved ones and have nothing against that. I myself buy presents perennially for my loved ones with money, because after all, who doesn’t love some new music or a good book? But I also believe under this corporate culture, we often overlook the finer things of the holidays, and often individuals are left behind, not feeling so jolly. Every child loves Santa Claus, with his shimmering beard, rosey cheeks and a laugh all guttural and mirthful, so shouldn’t it be a magical experience every year? Should there be more to it than just the selective hiring process at Sepia Digital Event Photography, a 15-year-old company based out of Houston, Texas, where about one in 75 are selected to be Santa?



After all, the gift-granting main attraction at a local mall near you is hired, groomed and trained much like any other employee. The only difference is, he has a legendary namethat is the envy and delight to all who love the holiday season. Sepia alone currently employs 85 Santas and over 500 elves-called the cast and crew-and is contracted in 44 malls around the country, including the Lloyd Center in Northeast Portland. We can date back the history of Santa’s appearance in malls to the 1950s, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Even before then, most Santas lived in department stores for the Holiday season. Back then, parents would have to wait weeks to receive photos of their children with Santa. With recent advances in digital photography, however, pictures of any size are available almost instantly.

According to the Star Tribune, each mall offering visits with Santa will spend nearly $22,000 on decorating, building Santa villages and the like, and some mall owners believe that having a Santa increases patronage. Moreover, the majority of malls will celebrate Santa's arrival with a special event, usually a parade, special breakfast, or reindeer feeding.



For the most part, photography companies are responsible for placing Santas in malls every Christmas. Usually the mall provides the decorations, and photo companies provide Santas, elves, and photographers. But Sepia and Noerr and other big companies have really built-up single-handedly the wonderland in each mall, hoping to fulfill the whole of each child’s imagination who would just love to sit on Santa’s lap and declare what they want for Christmas.



But Santa alone can’t make the holidays happy. Remember always that the magic of Christmas lies in your heart. Won’t it be utterly special to share that magic to someone unconditionally? And if you have the opprtunity to spread much more cheer beyond your family, your loved ones, your friends, your nices and nephews, your twice-removed third cousins, why not to those who need it most, who often are presently doubting anyone will lift their spirits up at least for a day? After all, it says in Proverbs 21:13, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” I believe in the philosophy, “The more you give, the more you get!” and usually what you get is not of material worth, but spiritually you feel a spark set a flame in the hearth in your heart, a feeling you don’t get from a box or a package.



Why do I bother doing this. Because I believe it’s a pure, kind gesture, and in my spiritual experience, on my Good Samaritan vision quest, I’ve recognized more and more the notion that we must "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Proverbs 31:8-9)



Within the last four years, I have begged my loved ones to limit their spending on me and give much of my Christmas money instead to contribute to charities to help the needy worldwide. One of my favorite charities I love contributing to is Heifer International.

Heifer International

It is a non-profit 501 organization which every tax-deductible purchase of a gift animal or tree seedling helps families around the world in third-world countries become self-reliant, and ensues also the plants and animals are healthy and are treated with respect under their mooto, "Ending Hunger, Caring For The Earth". Since 1944, Heifer International has helped more than 4.5 million families in more than 125 countries. They basically have believed in the philosophy since 1944 that if you "teach a man to fish", or are provided sustainable amounts of food and income, they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty permanently. Many third world nations sadly are not given the chance or these sustainable numbers by their governments, and to the critics who think $13 billion is just too much to ask for in providing basic health care and nutrition needs to the world’s poorest people, that is exactly how much Wall Street gave as bonuses in 2000, so as you can see, hunger has little to do with nature and everything rather with how we allocate our resources. And I believe by contributing to this wonderful organization, I am lifting someone or a family out of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. After all, Christmas is the happiest time of year, and I want to see it I make those in less fortunate communities have something to cheer about this year.

Good Gifts Catalogue

The Good Gifts Catalogue is another great and creative way to give the gift that keeps on giving AND for the good of the less fortunate! They’re in their second year now as a charity, thanks to their trust director Hilary Blume, who set up this charitable site after being flooded with countless unwanted wedding anniversary gifts. You can buy anything, from phone cards to children in care, prisoners, refugees, to dog training programs, to bicycles for Ethiopian midwives so they and their children can visit more local villages, to planting some silver birches, to building a village library. Their catalog is rich, diverse and innovative, designed to make a graceful gesture full of holiday spirit tin touching the lives of the less fortunate who, like you and I, believe in the values and tastes and interests of friends and family that mark the significant occasions of life. Generously chip in a few bucks for a box hive so children in Zimbabwe could have honey, or a dowry for orphans in Rwanda, or saris and warm shawls from weavers in Gujurat to protect widows and poor women in north India during the cold winter and to get closer to earning a living wage, anything. Have fun and give a hand.

There are a number of other like charities and philanthropist organizations you can also contribute to, if you are tired of getting Chanel no. 5 and want to give a gift that can make a lasting impression. Here are some I visited I also found meaningful:

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My Two Front Teeth

(MyTwoFrontTeeth.org's vision is to reduce the pain of poverty and help strengthen the bonds of society by bringing simplicity, efficiency, and personalization to the charitable gift-giving process, thereby encouraging all to experience the incredible power and joy of giving)

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World Vision

(Another great alternative gift catalog)

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Charity Commission

(U.K based regulator of a wide list of trusted, efficient charities)

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Great Gifts

(Another great source for alternative, goodwill gift giving)

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Charity Gifts

(A charity Christmas card/gift shopping mall)

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Vetaid

(Non-profit, international development organization working for reduction in poverty and increase in food security of people dependent on livestock.)

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Finally, try and find some time between now and Christmas to volunteer an hour or two at your local rescue mission. It is the gift of the heart, through involvement and community-building, that helps feed and care for the hundreds of homeless and needy men, women and children. Unconditional acts of kindness is great stewardship. Give generously to make a difference into their lives, become a friend to the homeless! I’ve volunteered myself numerous times before when working at the Denver Rescue Mission, serving french onion soup and warm rolls to a diverse group of residents, helping store away the bread in the storage room, and then, yep, I also was happy to help out with cleaning dirty dishes smothered with macaroni and cheese and ranch dressing. I even got a break time and got to talk to some local residents, who would tell me their own anecdotes and life experiences, and they truly made me feel welcome and all toasty inside each holiday season. It’s an enlightening experience.



So, take some time and help prepare and serve some meals to hometown residents, assist with the stuffing and distrbution of Christmas stockings for the children before Christmas, help out with the Adopt-A-Family program and provide impoverished families presents and a dinner to make their Christmas day special, help pack and distribute food boxes to needy individuals and families, volunteer at the Santa Shop, meet up with two to five friends of yours, call your local Family Rescue Ministry hotline, and set up a mentor session, anything of these sorts is wonderful. Or, you could also always give a monetary gift to help provide hot meals, safe shelter, clean clothes and Christian counseling to hungry, hurting, and homeless people. It’s these simple acts of kindness that bring out the Christmas cheer not only to others, but in ourselves.

I leave you with these words I also find immesnely meaningful:

"When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives or your rich neighbors;if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed. Although they can not repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14:12-14)



Why does Scrooge love Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? It’s not because every dollar is dear to him, but because every buck is dear to him! (giggles) Give the world not only some bang for your buck, but some beauty as well! I believe charity is very sexy! Besides, there are very few things I really need and want in life which money can't buy; true love and romance, my dream career experience and peace and harmony for all the world!

Love,
Noah Eaton
(Mistletoe Angel)
(Emmanuel Endorphin)