{"id":928,"date":"2016-12-20T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T16:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=928"},"modified":"2016-12-20T16:42:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T16:42:15","slug":"hippopotamus-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2016\/12\/hippopotamus-for-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Hippopotamus for Christmas!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have seen and heard the U.S. Postal Service’s cute advertisement about the little girl who obviously has asked for a hippopotamus for Christmas. The catchy tune plays over and over in the background. Her parents have looked and researched for one online and it is delivered just in time for Christmas by the USPS. Then on Christmas morning she opens it up, is excited but…out of the corner of her eye she sees through her window a deer in her snow-covered yard and reaches toward the window longingly. Her parents notice her longing and their happy faces become crest-fallen knowing another “want” has just been created!<\/p>\n

Such is the dilemma of our commercial driven culture. We are not satisfied. Madison Avenue, Hallmark, Target, Toys R Us and a host of others know just which buttons to push to get us to “want” other stuff.<\/p>\n

However, that is not my drumbeat today!<\/p>\n

The tune, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is catchy and I find it goes round and round in my head during the day – not “Silent Night” or “Joy to the World” but “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”! (At least I have learned to spell it!) And I bet that just reading this makes the tune start in your head!!<\/p>\n

Well…one morning as I was reading my Bible my eye was caught by a note in the margins with the word “hippopotamus”. Was a hippopotamus mentioned in the Bible?! Yes. (Job 40:15) The word actually is “behemoth”. But it means hippopotamus.<\/p>\n

How’s that for Biblical trivia?!<\/p>\n

Just an extra gift to you at this wonderful time of year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you have seen and heard the U.S. Postal Service’s cute advertisement about the little girl who obviously has asked for a hippopotamus for Christmas. The catchy tune plays over and over in the background. 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