zimmerBlog

The other week someone at my wife’s work told her that she couldn’t organize a “Secret Santa” activity because Santa was “too religious.” WHAT?

Perhaps this is because many people think God is like Santa. Santa is known for being a jolly old man who keeps track of who is nice and who is naughty. While people think that Santa approaches people this way, somehow they are always able to overlook their own nautiness and assume that Santa will bring them something. It’s like Santa is the gentle uncle who feins to be strict, but is really soft in the end.

If Santa were serious about our naughtiness, he would be more like the Santa Bot from Futurama. In the Futurama universe Santa Bot’s standard for nice has been set so high that he goes around destroying everyone he meets.

Maybe Santa Bot’s programming was not in error. If we’re all honest with ourselves we’d have to admit that we’re more naughty than nice. When we consider the things that we do but no one else sees, the things that happen inside our own heads, and our hesitancy to do the right thing we have to say that maybe Santa Bot is right.

If we are more naughty than nice we clearly don’t deserve to get anything for Christmas. Santa gives anyway. That makes Santa the supreme example of grace. Grace is the real meaning of Christmas: we didn’t deserve it but God gave us an incredible gift- his one and only son. Maybe Santa is trying to share this message by giving gifts to us eventhough we don’t deserve them.

Merry Christmas!