if you've done everything you should...

Just about every family has its own opinion and conviction about Santa Claus. I don't remember being told anything about Santa, but I did know that on Christmas Eve I got presents from "Santa." However, I realized very early on that Santa and Ma (my grandma) had the same handwriting--loopy and graceful, very delicate and feminine. I don't think I ever thought that Santa was real.

At least, not the jolly, fat, red-robed, cookie-eating bearded fellow from the North Pole. But a mystic, wish-granting, good-behavior rewarding, bad-behavior excusing deity? "You'll get yours if you've done everything thing you should, extra-special good." And if you weren't good... well, no one I know has ever actually gotten coal, and let me tell you, I know a few people who deserve coal every year. If that were just about Santa, I could stomach it. But don't we often think that way about God?

Take, for example, my least favorite Christmas song - "Santa Baby." It's a series of wishes in a prayer-like format. And our singer prays for all sorts of goodies, reminding Santa all the time of her own good behavior and of her future good behavior. She cajoles, "I really do believe in you. Let's see if you believe in me."

Maybe it's a single girl thing. But not only can I naturally think just like the girl in the song, but modern Christianity wants to feed me a steady diet of, "God just wants you to learn what He has for you. Then He will lead you to what's next." So what you're telling me is that once I've been really good, God will deliver? C'mon, God--think of all the fun I've missed! Think of all the fellows that I haven't kissed! Pay up!

Whatever happened to obedience to God's word because He is worthy of radical obedience, whether it makes me happy or not, whether it satisfies my earthly desires or not? Have we lost a sense of God's wrath and judgment upon sin? Do we forget that God is not Santa, that while bad kids still get presents, God is required by His own justice to punish sin? I forget it sometimes.

What freaks me out is that a lot of times our prayers sound like Christmas songs--big wish lists, with a few little compliments thrown in to appease the big guy in the red pajamas. There's an old hymn that takes the form of a prayer. Every time I hear "Santa Baby," I think of this hymn and get convicted all over again. I know which one I more often pray like.

We have not known Thee as we ought,
Nor learned Thy wisdom, grace and power;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light Thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing Thee.
We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought by Thomas B. Pollock