Thank God for Santa

Here’s an ear-witness account of part of a child’s bedtime prayer on Christmas night 2016: “Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for all the presents I got today (naming each one twice). Please thank Santa for bringing them. . . . In Jesus’ name, amen.”

He thought of that on his own and it pleased me that he recognized God’s and Santa’s places in Christmas. A lot of “mature” Christians have a problem with Santa Claus because they see a conflict between believing in God and believing in Santa as if “believing” in anything equated it with God. At issue, I believe, is God’s command that we’re to have no other gods besides him because we cannot serve two masters (Exodus 20:1-6; Matthew 6:24).

Although there’s only one true God, we decide who we’re going to worship and we continue to devise numerous gods to replace him (Isaiah 44:6-20; 1 John 5:20; Joshua 24:14-18; Romans 6:16-18). So, the problem would be whether we treat Santa as a god instead of or in addition to the true God. If we never attribute divinity to Santa Claus and follow only the one true God, there’s no problem.

Santa isn’t the only entity that’s been “deified.” The Israelites made an idol of the serpent that God gave as a cure for snakebite (Numbers 21:4-9; 2 Kings 18:1-4). There was nothing inherently wrong with the bronze or the serpent, itself. After all, God told them to make it even though it was an image of something on the earth (Exodus 20:4). The problem started when they burned incense to it as they did to God. Likewise, there was nothing inherently wrong with the wood or whatever was used to make idols, until they called the idol their god. Even enjoying food, which is a gift from God, can become idolatry to us if that’s what we make of it (Philippians 3:18-19; 1 Corinthians 6:12-13; Romans 14:14-18).

Everything is good when used properly with thanksgiving toward God (1 Timothy 4:1-5; James 1:17-18). We get into trouble when we disregard the thankful part forgetting who God is and look for things to replace him with (Romans 1:18-23). We’re even to be thankful in our troubles and understand the difference between good and evil (Philippians 4:4-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22). Santa really isn’t evil when kept in his proper place.

That’s what I really liked about the child’s Christmas night prayer. He thankfully acknowledged the ultimate source of the gifts and recognized that God can use whatever means he decides to deliver his promises and blessings, sometimes even using a fictitious character or one of Santa’s helpers, which includes me (don’t read that last part to your child).

And so, my prayer for you is that Santa (or whoever) brought you lots of good stuff from God this Christmas as well as for safety and prosperity in 2018 as you’re thankfully maintaining your focus on the one true God who wants only good for us (Jeremiah 29:11; Hebrews 13:20-21; Jude 1:24-25).

Leonard Lauriault writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]