Do You Know the Real St. Nick? (Shane Claiborne)

The original “Old St. Nick” who inspired the tradition of Santa Claus... was a bishop of Myra in fourth-century Turkey (Christians around the world remember him on December 6). There's not a whole lot known about him, but we know that he entrusted himself to Jesus early in his life, and when his folks died, he gave away all the inheritance to the poor.  Oh, and a neat little legend about the stockings we see everywhere.  The origin of the big red stockings was from a story of St. Nicholas.  Nicholas learned of three girls who were going to be sold into slavery by their father. He was so moved by their pain that he tossed three bags of gold through the window of the little girls' home, to ransom their lives.  The legend is that the money fell into their socks, which were drying by the fireplace.  So let us celebrate St. Nick today -- the real St. Nick -- as a lover of Jesus and of the poor.  And as we see stockings hanging up this Christmas, let us remember those who still hang their clothes out to dry... and may we remember the 1.2 million children who are trafficked each year in the global sex trade.  May their suffering move us to act.