Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Are You on Santa’s Naughty or Nice List?

Are you on Santa’s “Naughty” list or his “Nice” list?

Sometimes it’s hard to know, isn’t it?

You shovelled the snow off your elderly neighbour’s walkway, so that counts as nice.

But on the other hand, you greedily ate half a pan of freshly baked brownies before sharing them with your family. Not so nice.

You made up for that by running errands for a sick friend, and volunteering to work late at the office to help finish a project. Definitely heading well into “nice” territory!

But then you lost your temper at your spouse, fibbed to get out of visiting your mother-in-law, and illegally parked your car in a disabled space while you dashed into the store to buy milk. Uh-oh! Looks like you’re squarely back on the naughty list.

With Santa, it’s hard to know where you stand on the naughty/nice spectrum.

That’s why it’s good to know that, if you’re a believer in Jesus, there’s only one list:

Forgiven.

If you’re trusting in Jesus’ atoning work on the Cross, your name is added to the “Forgiven” list.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

This Is Who We Are

Today, Canada celebrates its birthday! July 1st is Canada Day, a holiday on which we have parties, set off fireworks, and wave the flag.

We’re all attached to our national flags, aren’t we? Each is beautiful in its own way. Some flags have blocks of colour; some feature significant symbols; others have patterns of stars and stripes. A handful of countries depict plants or trees on their flags, mine among them.

Canada’s flag has a maple leaf at its centre. In fact, the nickname for our flag is the Maple Leaf. As a nature lover, I’m proud to have a symbol of a plant on my national flag, and especially pleased that it’s a leaf from one of my favourite trees.

Growing up, I loved maple trees: I climbed them, enjoyed the sugar and fudge made from their sap, collected their red and orange leaves in autumn to press and even jumped into raked-up piles of them.

I’d venture to say that all Canadians love maple trees. The trees themselves are beautiful and stately; the wood harvested from them is so strong it can be used as the flooring for bowling alleys; we harvest precious sap from them to make sought-after products like maple syrup; and the leaves turn gorgeous colours in the autumn.

The maple leaf is the emblem of Canada. It symbolizes who we are as a people: hardy, strong, nature-loving northerners.

Just as the maple tree is important to Canadians, there’s another tree which is very important to a certain group of people:

It’s the tree Christ was crucified on.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Are You a Cat or a Dog?

It’s hard to embarrass a cat. They just don’t seem to have a sense of shame.

If they’ve done something naughty, like shredded the fabric on your expensive couch with their claws, they’re not actually sorry about it. They’re just ticked off that you’re making such a big fuss about it.

Cats seem to lack the ability to be repentant.

Dogs, on the other hand, can definitely feel and show contrition.

Just take a look at the plethora of “dog-shaming” videos online.

Dog owners upload clips in which they confront their mutts with the evidence of their misdeeds. The owners come home to garbage-strewn rooms, destroyed furniture, and chewed-up shoes. The disaster area is documented on video, and then the camera pans to the dog…

The results are often hilarious.

The mutt slinks off with its tail between its legs, or else sits there looking sheepish and trying not to meet their owner’s eyes. The pooch might even try to hide in a cupboard.

Yes, dogs know when they’ve done something wrong.

The question is, do we?

Are we quick to ask God’s forgiveness when we sin, or do we justify our behaviour to ourselves and continue in our disobedience?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Who Loves You?

Photo from Pxhere

How many times today has someone told you that they love you?

If you have a loving family, you’ll probably hear them express their love for you frequently.

But what if your family ties are a bit strained? What if you don’t have many close relationships at all, and consider yourself to be fairly alone in the world?

Then you probably don’t hear the words “I love you” nearly enough.

There’s a remedy for that:

Open a Bible.

The unfailing love of God is a soundtrack that reverberates through the Scriptures.

It’s easy to find verses in the New Testament that exemplify God’s love:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
And of course: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

But what about the Old Testament?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Yes, Virginia, There Really Is A Jesus Christ!

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

If you still believe in Santa Claus, please avert your eyes from the screen right now.

I’ll wait.

For the rest of you, how old were you when you realized that there wasn’t really a Santa Claus?

Five or six? Nine or ten? Thirty?

For me, the realization came on bit by bit over the years when I was little.

First off, on the gift tags on my Christmas presents, I noticed that the “To Lori, Love Santa” inscription was written in handwriting that looked an awful lot like my Mom’s. In fact, exactly like hers. I realized that it was, in fact, my Mom’s handwriting, not Santa’s.

That was my first inkling that something was up with this whole Santa thing.

Later on, I saw a notice in the newspaper that Santa would be visiting the Eaton Centre, a major mall in downtown Toronto. I was so excited! I could get my picture taken with the real Santa!

But then I saw another ad touting Santa’s visit to another mall on the same day. At the exact same time. How could Santa be in two places at once? That seemed a bit fishy to me. It slowly dawned on me that it wasn’t really Santa, but merely regular people in Santa costumes.

As an older but wiser young person, I came to discover that a lot of people I’d thought were real were in fact fictitious. Not just Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but others as well. There isn’t even a real Betty Crocker—she’s merely a creation of advertisers.

It’s always disillusioning when you discover that something you once believed in isn’t true after all.

But how comforting it is to know that there really was a Jesus Christ.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell · 2 Comments

You Dirty Dog!

Bad dog! Image from Picryl, Public Domain.

Imagine your living room is perfectly clean.

I mean perfectly. Your white couch is utterly spotless. Your white carpet looks pristine. There isn’t an iota of dust or dirt anywhere in the room.

And then your dog wants in.

Rover somehow found the only mud puddle in the dog park and spent a considerable amount of time rolling around in it.

He stands on the other side of the back door, wagging his tail and smiling, unable to figure out why you won’t let him in. After all, surely you love him, don’t you?

But you know that the second you let Rover in, he’ll shake his fur and send thousands of bits of mud all over your perfectly clean living room.

The solution?

Clean Rover off before he can enter the house. Hose him down, dry him off, and wipe his paws. Rover may not understand the necessity of all this, but it’s your living room and your rules.

Likewise, we sometimes can’t understand why God wouldn’t let us into Heaven just as we are.

Sure, we’ve committed a few sins, but we’re pretty decent people overall, aren’t we? Doesn’t God love us? What’s the necessity of a having a Saviour to atone for our sins?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Throne of Grace

Image by Ralph from Pixabay

What does your favourite chair look like?

Is it a ratty recliner held together with pieces of duct tape, like the one used by Marty Crane on the TV sitcom “Frasier”?

Or is it more regal and imposing, dominating the room like a throne?

I think many of us rather like the idea of having a throne like the ones monarchs throughout history sat on.

The seat of the Chinese emperors was known as the Dragon Throne. The Mughal emperors of India had the Peacock Throne.

Korean monarchs sat on the Phoenix Throne, and Japanese emperors on the Chrysanthemum Throne.

The Shahs of Persia sat on a royal throne known as the Marble Throne, while Swedish monarchs were crowned on the Silver Throne.

Both the emperors of Vietnam and the Pharaoh Tutankhamen were enthroned on a Golden Throne.

And of course fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin has given us the Iron Throne, the seat of the monarch in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It was said to have been made of the swords of defeated enemies.

But there’s a throne made of something infinitely more precious than any of the above…

The Throne of Grace.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Jesus Has an Open Door Policy

Image by Lori from Pixabay

When building a birdhouse for your feathered friends, the size of the “front door” is crucial.

You must create the right-sized entrance hole or the “wrong” bird will take up residence.

For instance, a wren or chickadee prefers an entrance hole to be about 1.125 inches across. A bluebird likes a slightly bigger doorway, about 1.5 inches in diameter.

A finch needs an opening 2 inches across, thank you very much, and purple martins prefer a bit more wiggle room than that to squeeze through the front door.

And if you don’t surround the hole with protective metal mesh, the squirrels will chew the hole bigger and move in themselves. Then you’ll discover you’re the proud owner of a squirrel house (I learned this the hard way).

All of this got me thinking about the story of Noah’s Ark in the Bible…

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What Love Looks Like

The incomparable Taj Mahal, India

The Taj Mahal, in Agra, India, is considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, and rightly so.

Built from white marble, it was commissioned in 1631 by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died that year giving birth to their fourteenth child.

For many in India and around the world, the Taj Mahal is an iconic symbol of love. Every stone and jewel used in its construction speaks of the tremendous affection the Shah had for his wife, and his grief at her passing. To many people, the Taj Mahal is the embodiment of love.

What does love look like to you?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Do The Math

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Life is sort of like math class.

How so?

Let’s assume I’m in school and have to take a math test.

There’s an equation at the top of the page I’m handed, and blank space underneath for me to write out my solution to the equation.

But I don’t solve the equation.

Instead, in the first third of the blank space I write a funny, rhyming poem about math class. Next, I draw a bunch of smiling numerals with little arms and legs and depict them as dancing together. In the last third of the page I write a short essay about the benefits of studying math.

I hand in my test to the teacher, and await the results.

The next day, the teacher tells me, “Lori, the poem you wrote had me in stitches. Your drawing of the dancing numbers was delightful, too. And I’d love to incorporate some of the insights in your essay into one of my lessons.”

“That’s great!” I’d say. “So what mark did I get?”

“Zero,” the teacher would respond.

“But why?” I’d ask. “I thought you loved what I wrote.”

“I did: the things you filled the page with were all good and creative and helpful. But they don’t count towards your mark. You failed to do the one thing required of you, which was to solve the equation.”

Is the teacher being fair? Yes.

Is there one thing that God requires of us?

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