GOD IS NOT SANTA CLAUS

Hello everybody Christmas is upon us again!! How time flies, I remember writing my Christmas article last Christmas on having fun during Christmas. You can check it out here. I love Christmas, I love the festive mood, the reunion with friends and family and the general magic that comes along with the atmosphere. As a kid, part of that magic was Santa. All the movies and songs portrayed him as real and on his way. While most Nigerian kids didn't really believe in Santa (they were too many at different places at the same time, plus our parents didn't make a fuss about it like western parents did) we still kept the illusion going for the fun and magic of it.

However there is an aspect of Santa that has evolved from a twisted idea of God. Many believe God is vengeful and relates with people based on their behavior. This is the traditional view of any deity and this view was imposed upon us by the fall of Adam. This is the view that Jesus came to eradicate. He also came to give us a proper vision of God. It is a God we could never imagine existed. He is Love. Not that he chooses to Love or he has love, not even that he loves, but HE IS love. One of the attribute of Love is that he keeps no records of wrongs (1 Cor. 13)

Beloved, our God is not Santa. He does not have a naughty or nice list, giving the naughty nothing and giving the nice their wishes. He lets the Sun shine on both the good and the wicked, and he is kind to ungrateful and evil people (Matthew 5:43; Luke 6: 32-36). God is not a book keeper. The only book he keeps is the list of those who have chosen Life over Death; Jesus over Religion; The Finished Work over self effort. Any person who ends up in the lake of fire on the day of judgment ends up there because they have chosen to save themselves by their good deeds rather than accept that they have been saved by Grace ( Ephesians 2: 8-10)

The essence of Christmas is not about a God who gives good gifts to the good people but about a God who saw a perverse world heading for self destruction and instead of accepting that, he came and joined us in the person of Jesus. He took our destruction and evil on himself and conquered it in every form. In that way, he redeemed us from our own evil.

Even the original Saint Nicholas (from whom we get Santa Claus) was a man who went about giving gifts to destitute children. I don't think he was keeping a naughty or nice list, and i'm absolutely certain that all those children weren't nice kids. Let us keep the spirit and intent of Christmas going; the birth of Jesus, giving and being with family

I believe in Christmas and that kids should enjoy all the magic and fantasy that accompanies. I don't even think we should make a big deal about Santa. I mean saying "Santa is Satan" is very uncool and ridiculous  come on !! However, I believe we should be conscious of the idea of God we portray to our children and if Santa is going to conflict with that idea, we should make sure they get the distinction; God is real, Santa is fiction and God is not Santa Claus.

Have a Merry Christmas everybody