The fires and smoke of autumn have given way to a Californian storm. The winds are high and the rains fall in occasionally heavy downfalls. It’s California cold. A few tree branches are down and a few report power outages on their Facebook page. Mostly we stay in the warm house waiting for it to all pass and the sun to come out again.
Listening to the yelling of the wind, I consider what to write about. Perhaps a response to today’s sermon or a cat story. Should I tell you that we went out into the weather to attend church and then to a play at a local theater?
Perhaps I could share that I tried to write a poem about the rain, but after two hours I couldn’t find the main thread that wove my thoughts together. Words were scattered to the wind and likely are lying in a pile by the fence.
I do have a part of my wood shop that is heated so I retreated there to work on a piece of marquetry and that became the creative thing I accomplished on a rainy day. It’s not fancy, just a clock with a bit of whimsy (pictures later in the week).
So back to the sermon at church. Our Pastor took for her text, John 20:29 and the movie, The Polar Express. My first thought was, forgive her for she’s a grandmother. Actually, if you compare the two they cover similar themes of belief. While the movie explores the more secular notions of Santa Claus, it can be viewed as an allegory for belief in Christian God with Santa as a kind of Jesus.
In the Bible passage Jesus says basically, “You have seen and believed, but blessed are those who haven’t seen and still believe.”
In The Polar Express a boy and some friends go on a train journey to the North Pole to see Santa. The boy has adventures, encounters strange things and when he gets to the North Pole it seems that everyone but him can see Santa until he believes. The proof of his belief shown when he hears the bell and sees Santa.
Our Pastor said at one point, “Seeing is believing.” Naturally my poet brain wanted to respond with, “But believing is seeing.”
I am at heart a mystic and find the belief comes before all.
Andrew's View of the Week 
Ay, belief. That terrific word.
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It’s a great word.
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The movie may be secular but it does touch on believing in what cannot be seen or proven. Even though I’m agnostic, this is an important part of life that many people ignore or reject. There are things in this world that need to be believed without seeing or proving.
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There are indeed things worth believing in.
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I just read the story. It is beautiful. As we grow older we take so many things for granted and stop appreciating. Hope I never do that 🙂
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It is a wonderful story.
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If we believe, we do see a lot more.
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Very true.
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I relate well to your mystic inclinations, Andrew. Interesting sermon topic, and although I’ve read the book, Polar Express, I never saw the movie. I may think about studying this a little closer. 🙂 We have been enjoying the rain and cold “down here,” too, and the only difficulty is that I have lost a few succulents to a sudden freeze. Very untypical, but i hope this means we’ll have more rain again this year. This has indeed been a cold rain, and the local mountains, which never see more than a little light snow, have been quite spectacular. I was going on and on about it so much I had to apologize to my family and acknowledge we aren’t in the Alps, I’m just easily impressed. 🙂
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You should see the movie. The movie adds a bit of material not in the book. I found it interesting to look closer at the story. We had a bit of snow up here and the rain fall totals are starting to look good.
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This line made me laugh: My first thought was, forgive her for she’s a grandmother. 😀
I’m with you on reversing the phrase to “believing is seeing.” That’s helped me through a lot of questions and times of doubt. Once I let go of my need to understand, it’s amazing how faith steps in and helps me see.
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I liked that line too. 😉 . Faith doesn’t always mean we understand – sometimes a mystery is enough.
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I like your version, “Believing is seeing” better than your pastor’s.
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I like my version too. 😉
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We have constant drainage problems in our backyard. Each time for a different reason and this time, we were out in the pouring rain trying to open up the pipe to the street.
This is the Imperial ‘We’–my husband and son. I had to keep the coffee warm.
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I don’t get that problem at my house, but the rain gutters sometimes get blocked with leaves. Then I get to go out in the rain.
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Santa is very closely connected with Odin, not least his eight legged horse, Sleipnir, which has become the eight reindeer. His huge sack is now for presents but was originally carried by Odin as he flew the stormy skies at night in his sleigh, looking for naughty Christians out too late, so that he could reach down and stuff them into his bag and take them off. This activity was called “The Wild Hunt”.
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Yes, that is true. As the myth of Santa moved into American, 19th and 20th century story tellers shifted the narrative a bit to make Santa a gift giver rather than a taker.
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I really did enjoy that particular movie, Andrew, and I don’t watch very many. I like that your pastor did a correlation like that, it is a good way to drawn the younger generation in.
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Yes, the young ones enjoyed having clips of the film shown as part of the sermon.
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