We killed a god
For a long part of my childhood, I was taught dualism. Not that there was a good god and an evil god warring against each other, but that there was God the creator of all things who was omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; and that there was the god of giftgiving and gift withholding who was also omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. It's late and I'm tired from traveling, so I'm not going to go any deeper with a cheesy story when it is obvious that I'm speaking of old Santa Claus himself.
Many people worship God the creator January thru November, and then they switch to the god of December or the god of the winter wonderland who is equal with the God of the rest of year, only not a creator, accept for the fact that he creates billions of toys every year.
You know, when the pagans needed something or wanted something such as a good rain for their crop season, they would try to please the god of the storm that could bring that needed rain. They had gods for everything and did all they could to please the gods in order to receive what they wanted or needed at the time. As winter comes in, our kids "need" toys and other fun stuff to play with, so like the pagans, we tell them that they better please the toy god so that they receive these things they want. The toy god, like the god of the storm of the pagans, sees everything, knows everything, and therefore is in a sense everywhere. "If you're nice and not naughty, you will please the god of the toys and he will bless you with some toys. If you are naughty, he may not bless you with toys, or maybe with not as many toys. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, God the creator sees you too and He wants you to be nice. But you don't get anything from Him at Christmas; you have to wait until you die for His gifts."
7 YEARS LATER - "Well, Santa is not exactly real. ... No, we weren't lying to you; we said 'Whatever you think'. ... The presents from Santa? Oh, those were put under the tree by us. I guess we did kinda lie, huh? We just didn't want you to feel left out. Besides, what's the harm of believing in the pagan god of the storm, I mean the god of the toys, I mean Santa Claus?.....God? No, no, no, He's really real. ... Seriously, He is. ... Yes, He really does see you when you're sleeping...Yes, He really does know when you're awake...Yes, He does know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake...I know there's no difference, but trust us, He's for real, really real."
Well, we killed the false god. I can't believe we ever considered letting our children believe in such a thing. We never pushed the whole Santa thing, but we never shut it down as false either. Now, as April approaches, I'm cleaning my gun. It's rabbit season, you know.
Many people worship God the creator January thru November, and then they switch to the god of December or the god of the winter wonderland who is equal with the God of the rest of year, only not a creator, accept for the fact that he creates billions of toys every year.
You know, when the pagans needed something or wanted something such as a good rain for their crop season, they would try to please the god of the storm that could bring that needed rain. They had gods for everything and did all they could to please the gods in order to receive what they wanted or needed at the time. As winter comes in, our kids "need" toys and other fun stuff to play with, so like the pagans, we tell them that they better please the toy god so that they receive these things they want. The toy god, like the god of the storm of the pagans, sees everything, knows everything, and therefore is in a sense everywhere. "If you're nice and not naughty, you will please the god of the toys and he will bless you with some toys. If you are naughty, he may not bless you with toys, or maybe with not as many toys. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, God the creator sees you too and He wants you to be nice. But you don't get anything from Him at Christmas; you have to wait until you die for His gifts."
7 YEARS LATER - "Well, Santa is not exactly real. ... No, we weren't lying to you; we said 'Whatever you think'. ... The presents from Santa? Oh, those were put under the tree by us. I guess we did kinda lie, huh? We just didn't want you to feel left out. Besides, what's the harm of believing in the pagan god of the storm, I mean the god of the toys, I mean Santa Claus?.....God? No, no, no, He's really real. ... Seriously, He is. ... Yes, He really does see you when you're sleeping...Yes, He really does know when you're awake...Yes, He does know if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake...I know there's no difference, but trust us, He's for real, really real."
Well, we killed the false god. I can't believe we ever considered letting our children believe in such a thing. We never pushed the whole Santa thing, but we never shut it down as false either. Now, as April approaches, I'm cleaning my gun. It's rabbit season, you know.
posted by Rick Harper @ 11:40 PM
2 Comments:
At 7:40 AM,
Mister Jason said…
It's rabbit season!! Ha! That was great. You guys have got me thinking about Santa a bit. I agree with you guys wholeheartedly. I'm looking forward to the film coming out in a few weeks THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. I'm wondering if the filmmakers will cut out the scene with Santa Claus. As I was reading C.S. Lewis's book, this scene seemed a little silly, but a song by Relient K called "In like a Lion (Always Winter)," which was inspired by that book, is making me reconsider the "silliness" of that scene, and the significance of it. Maybe I'll blog about it.
At 6:26 PM,
Rick Harper said…
For the days that we will be home from tomorrow until Christmas, we have decided to do something special as a gift everyday as a family, such as: tomorrow, Dec 1 we are having a movie night where we will cuddle and drink hot chocolate and eat popcorn, we may cut and bake some cookies the next day, and build a ginger bread house the next day; on the 6th, we are going as a family to see the Chronicles of Narnia; Eli has gone through his toys and is going to take a bunch to some type of charity on one of the days. So, we're just gonna find somekind of small thing to do for each other and others each day until Christmas. On the last seven days, we have a "What God wants for Christmas" nativity scene. Each day there is a tiny present that the boys will open. Each present is a character from the nativity scene. There's also a story to read with it everyday.
Then, on Christmas, we'll either do a gift for each of us, or one family gift, or stockings. We're sill deciding. But in all of these things, we will make sure that Christ is central and the focus of all of them.
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