Why you weren’t invited to the ‘Star Wars’ premiere

The first reactions to Star Wars: The Last Jedi are in. According to the Associated Press, “the enthusiastic audience laughed and cheered throughout much of the two-and-a-half-hour film.” If you weren’t invited to the Los Angeles premiere, that’s because you’re not a Hollywood insider.

While being a celebrity might get you into a blockbuster movie opening, it’s no match for the power of nature. Paris Hilton, Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Tilly, and Lea Michele are among the celebrities fleeing wildfires that have grown larger than New York City and Boston combined. Tilly had to go to four hotels to find a room.

Now let’s shift gears to the most popular celebrity of Christmas. National Geographic is reporting on the final remains of St. Nicholas: “Though his remains are venerated worldwide, no one knows for certain where he rests in peace–or more accurately, in pieces.”

The man whose life became the basis for Santa Claus was a venerated Christian leader whose relics were distributed throughout Christendom after his death. A radiocarbon study conducted by Oxford University scholars shows that a relic housed in the Shrine of All Saints in Morton Grove, Illinois, does in fact date to the time of the saint’s death. Other relics of St. Nicholas are housed in more than a dozen churches around the world.

Nicholas of Myra was born in the city of Patara (in modern-day Turkey) in AD 270. His wealthy parents died in an epidemic while he was young.

Obeying Jesus’ command in Matthew 19:21 to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas used his entire inheritance to help the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He was made Bishop of Myra while a young man and participated in the council that produced the Nicene Creed.

Those who are celebrities today may be forgotten tomorrow, but the Holy Spirit describes God’s faithful with this promise: “They may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Revelation…