{"id":3135,"date":"2019-12-12T12:06:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T19:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2023-04-28T10:04:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T17:04:45","slug":"prison-bars-and-jingle-bells-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/prison-bars-and-jingle-bells-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison bars and jingle bells"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2520\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2520\" style=\"width: 224px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2520 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-768x1028.jpg 768w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-765x1024.jpg 765w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat.jpg 1936w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 224px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 224\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2520\" src=\"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-768x1028.jpg 768w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat-765x1024.jpg 765w, https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Anderson_Pat.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2520\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Editor Patrick Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>By Pat Anderson<\/em><br \/>\nFrom December 2009<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>I brought 3-year-old Scruffy to the office today. This fine Cairn Terrier is a member of\u00a0the family, primarily Sydney\u2019s dog, but a member of the whole family.\u00a0 The story below is how he came to be with us three years ago.\u00a0 He is very happy today in the CBF office, and the staff seems to\u00a0appreciate his\u00a0netw<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>orking spirit.<br \/>\nPat Anderson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Except for a few years when our children were small, but even then deep down, I harbor an\u00a0adult-long dislike for Christmas.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like the mythology of Santa, the reliance of the American economy on retailers\u2019 success in wooing me to spend money on foolish things, the pressure of conflicted Christendom to \u201cput Christ back in Christmas,\u201d debates over nativity scenes in the public square and a supposed war on Christmas, gaudiness\u2026.I hate it all.\u00a0 I hate the letdown after the mad rush of present opening on Christmas day\u2026.well, you know how I feel.<\/p>\n<p>When Carolyn and I were paroled a few years ago from the prison of child-raising, we enjoyed the empty nest for a few short years by spending the Christmas season doing fun things like going to London one year, giving extra offerings to ministries for the poor, and thinking holy thoughts of righteous separation from the worldliness of Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Our parole was revoked and we were thrust back in the child-centered slammer,\u00a0 at least for the time being, by our daughter\u2019s divorce and her return home with her two little darlings, Sydney age 8 and Davis age 5.\u00a0 Now we are into Christmas again, and despite all of my curmudgeon-ness, my old heart is softening.\u00a0 Perhaps it was the 5-inch snowfall we had this weekend.\u00a0 Maybe it is the music and hot chocolate with the added kick.\u00a0\u00a0 I cannot be sure, but I do feel my old frozen heart melting.<\/p>\n<p>Davis is the biggest reason.\u00a0 He is the first person I have encountered who really epitomizes the \u201cspirit of Christmas\u201d, if there is such a thing.\u00a0 He snuggles really well for one thing, and all grandparents are suckers for snuggling grandchildren.\u00a0 But the biggest quality he brings to the table is his genuinely selfless attitude.<\/p>\n<p>I ask him \u201cWhat do you want for Christmas, big guy?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The question itself exposes my reversion to bad ol\u2019 Christmases past, focusing our conversation on the evil subject of material expectations, something I had sworn off.\u00a0 But he just shrugs and says \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d with an air of disinterest, a detachment which I have not seen in the other children in my life.\u00a0 Then, he says, \u201cI want Sydney to have a puppy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, that just about does me in.\u00a0 He knows his big sister is having a hard time with the family reorganization.\u00a0 He talks with her in privileged conversations only siblings can have and he knows how lonely she feels sometimes, and he hears her frequent longing for a dog of her own, a pet to snuggle with, shower with affection, and talk to.\u00a0 More than anything, Davis wants his sister to be happy.<\/p>\n<p>Davis has spent the past two days with his Gram working on a special handmade card for Syd,\u00a0\u00a0 He selected buttons from Gram\u2019s stash and ribbon carefully chosen for color and texture.\u00a0 He picked his favorite sharpies and created a drawing of a house with a door that opens onto the sight of a Christmas tree, decorated in his own artistic style.\u00a0 He thinks day and night of trying to make his sister happy.\u00a0 He is sure this hand crafted card will please her, and he works hard at keeping his efforts secret so she will be properly surprised.\u00a0 His creative juices are flowing.\u00a0 He is the happiest kid I know as he puts all his creative energy in the special card.<\/p>\n<p>Well, we got Sydney a puppy. His name is Scruffy. I am now in the Christmas spirit (whatever that is).\u00a0 Davis has won me over.\u00a0 Maybe the sound I hear is not the prison bars clanging shut but the jingle bells in the melting snow of my heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Pat Anderson From December 2009 I brought 3-year-old Scruffy to the office today. This fine Cairn Terrier ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3138,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}