Dearest Friends,
The line between truth and fiction is quickly blurring into a bigger and bigger 'unknown' area. Stories are passed from one person to another, from one website to another, from one inbox to another. The stories that are nice to hear are passed along as truth, and many people simply accept it. Most of these should be placed on the huge blur of "unknown" if not actually in the "false" section, if we were to be sorting stories out.
A story that has been floating around for quite a while is regarding the origin of the Candy Cane:
A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.
He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the church, and firmness of the promises of God.
The candymaker made the candy in the form of a “J” to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our savior. It also represents the staff of the “Good Shepherd” with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.
Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used the tree small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Jesus on the Cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life, if only we put our faith and trust in Him.
The story is posted on countless websites, nearly word for word. An obvious copy and paste from one source to another simply because the story is a nice one to believe.
I now refer you to http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/candycane.asp.
The candy cane was invented as candy. Probably began as sugar sticks used to keep babies quiet before the pacifier was invented. The stripes were added later, and no evidence states either way whether the addition of stripes was triggered by someone symbolizing Jesus' wounds. Anything can be made to look like it has symbolism. LifeSavers are a circle to represent eternal life, right?
Let's not spread half-baked myths this Christmas, but focus on what we already know to be true.
...now I want a candy cane...
Originally posted by CoconutThe 'medicine men' of old once sold a baby quitener solution in a bottle.It worked very well as it contained opium.Poor babies.
Dearest Friends,
The line between truth and fiction is quickly blurring into a bigger and bigger 'unknown' area. Stories are passed from one person to another, from one website to another, from one inbox to another. The stories that are nice to hear are passed along as truth, and many people simply accept it. Most of these should be placed on the huge ...[text shortened]... this Christmas, but focus on what we already know to be true.
...now I want a candy cane...