"He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake, He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!"
One of characteristics of God that distinguishes Him from anyone/anything else is his omniscience. He knows all. This shows his greatness, for what else can know even the intentions of our hearts? Well, this song would put Santa into that all knowing camp. But this is just for fun...it is harmless right?
There will come a day when Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Toothfaily, and all the like will cease to be believed in. There will come a time when kids realize that that is silly fairly tale stuff. Logic will tell them there is no way for a man to deliver presents all around the world in one night, that deer can't fly, that Santa can't fit through the chimney, and that there is no way for anyone to know everything we do.
Did you see that? If Santa is fake then what he does is fake...and one of those things is his omniscience. While it is true that Santa isn't omniscient, could it be that the whole idea of omniscience is put into the fairy tale category? On the surface this may not be seen as a big deal, but anytime we credit what is reserved for God to someone else, than it is a big deal to Him. He alone is God, set apart from everything else.
When the "magic" is over, what do we and our kids believe? This is what we must think about. Of course they enjoy it at the time...they would also enjoy eating cookies for dinner every night. But what is the long term effect? We are instilling in our kids and grand kids ideas that will affect them, even if they can never put a finger on where that viewpoint came from.
If you choose to do Santa this year and in years to come, this, and all the other Santa blogs, hope to help you seriously think through how you communicate Santa and Jesus to your kids and grand kids. Make it fun, but not spiritually dangerous.
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