Gregory Scott

Ripples In The Pond

Back in 2002, author George Grant gave me two Moleskine journals. He told me he had carried them for years to record thoughts and quotes from books he read. I began carrying one and writing in it.

I soon became frustrated though because my handwriting was so bad. I didn’t like the way my writing looked on the page. It seemed to detract from the profundity of some of the quotes (weird, I know).

So, I decided to relearn cursive writing. I bought some handwriting books and began retracing letters, just like we all did back in grade school. It took weeks, but as my handwriting was being transformed I began to appreciate the beauty of cursive lettering as an art form–which, by the way, it is (calligraphy). Continue reading “Ripples In The Pond”

How God Spoke In The Christmas Story

God is the Great Communicator. The Bible says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets at many times and in various ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

As Francis Schaeffer said, “He is there and He is not silent.” He certainly was not silent in the circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ.

Tradition says Jesus was born in a cave; He would be buried in a cave-tomb.

When Jesus was born, His mother wrapped Him in swaddling cloth, the same type of cloth used to wrap the dead before burial. (Luke 2:7). When the magi came to worship Jesus, they brought Him myrrh, an aromatic gum resin used for embalming. (Matthew 2:1-12). Continue reading “How God Spoke In The Christmas Story”

The Real Saint Nicholas

St. Nicholas was born in 270 A.D. in the city of Patara in Lycia (modern day Turkey). His parents died when he was a young man, leaving him a substantial inheritance, which he determined to devote to works of charity.

Not long thereafter, Nicholas learned of a man in Patara who, because of his poverty, could neither support his three daughters nor find husbands for them. As a result, this man was considering giving his daughters over to prostitution.

When Nicholas heard of this, under cover of darkness, he went to the man’s house with a bag of gold, which he threw into an open window. Nicholas then slipped away undetected. Now having a dowry, the oldest daughter was soon married. Thereafter, Nicholas repeated his charitable act for the other two daughters, who also married. Continue reading “The Real Saint Nicholas”

On The Origin Of The Christmas Tree

How the Christmas tree came to be is the stuff of legend, and while there is usually some truth in legends the details often vary. Therefore, without vouching for its historical accuracy, I give you the following, along with my own take on the symbolism of the Christmas tree:

St. Boniface was born in 672 A.D. in England, became a priest and ultimately a missionary to what is today Germany. The people living in that region were pagans, worshipping a fake-god named Thor. One of their most sacred sites was an ancient oak tree dedicated to Thor. Continue reading “On The Origin Of The Christmas Tree”

What You Can Learn From Scrooge

Charles Dickens’s, A Christmas Carol, is, in my book, the best Christmas story of all time, with the exception, of course, of the real Christmas story. I even included two different versions of the movie in my list of the Top 10 Christmas Movies Of All Time.

As we have done for the last several years, the wife and I attended the theatre Saturday night to watch the stage version of this classic. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweets from the front row of the show (though I did so before the play began and during intermission). Continue reading “What You Can Learn From Scrooge”