Maybe it’s just easier…
Maybe it’s just easier to believe that a jolly old elf flies around the world in one night driven by reindeer, somehow comes into every home undetected, consumes tons of cookies and milk, and makes and brings billions of gifts to good girls and boys everywhere.
(Sounds even wilder when described like that!! LOL)
And yet, in a just a few days, children will believe in that with their whole hearts, and all of us willing accomplices wink and play along. And beyond that, it’s not just a parent and child thing – it’s a cultural cornerstone.
I know, I know, Santa is safer. Believing in or going along with Santa doesn’t require any risk – it doesn’t cost anything (soul-wise). Giving gifts and bringing joy – these are all good things!!
But there is something better…
If it is outrageous or silly to believe all this Santa stuff (unless you’re a child)…what about the outrageous, ridiculous, comical, and delusional idea that Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, the Word of God, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin – was the child born in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago? And that He dwelled among us, presence, in the flesh and was full of grace and truth? And, that all of this came from God’s steadfast love – that He loves us this much?
Now when we truly believe in Him and it affects our lives – it is risky and it does cost us. That’s the difference between the commercialized Christmas and the real one – between presents and presence. The real one asks us to believe in people and things that aren’t visible – that we can’t prove with scientific methods. It asks us to love the unlovable, it asks us to give of our time, money and talents to what the world views as losing causes, it asks us to forgive and then forgive again and again.
Listen, Santa’s nice and generous, but he wasn’t born to save us from our sins and lead us to live a transformed, God glorifying, truly satisfied life.
So, on that magical night, in which the hopes and fears of all the years are met, can you and I believe with our whole hearts, minds, strength and soul that this gift of Jesus is real and that it is for you and me and for others; and can we believe in and live in ways that show His presence shapes our lives in the present?
Because after all the wrapping is thrown away and food is cleaned up everybody goes home and the tree comes down and it’s all over, there is still one gift there, the best gift of all.
It’s more than a jolly old elf bringing gifts. It’s more than a holiday. It’s more than the gifts and time with family and friends. It’s that God, who didn’t have to and on many levels doesn’t make any sense in doing, came to dwell with us – to be present with us, to love us, to save us and to open the way to Heaven for us.
Can we believe it?
Can we share it?
Merry Christmas and Amen.
Living Water 