What the...?
Long before the Lord ever blessed us with our son Zane, we made the decision that Santa Claus would not be a part of our families Christmas celebration. Let me pause because experience has taught me I need to. Please do not get hung up here. This is usually where people start asking a million questions... Why? What is Zane going to do when he goes to school, etc. I have heard it all before. This is not the point of this Blog. There is nothing wrong with having Santa as part of your Christmas, it’s just not for us. We are not zealots, we still do Christmas tree’s, presents, stockings, just not Santa. Emily and I have chosen to only emphasis the Person of Christ for Christmas.
And so we have lived out this plan. At Christmas we never mention Santa. Presents are from Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa etc, because we love each other. One of my favorite lines about presents with Zane is, “Christmas is Jesus’ birthday and that’s how cool Jesus is... On his Birthday you get presents.” For us, Santa just isn’t part of any of it. Just like we had planned.
So you can imagine my shock when Zane, while sipping hot cocoa after an evening of decorating the Christmas tree as a family, looked up at me at said, “Dad I love Christmas.” It was a kodak moment all around, such a nice family evening and I continued it all proudly with my response. “Me too Zane. I love celebrating Jesus’ birthday, because you know he....” But my fatherly response trailed off as a disconcerted look crept over Zane’s face. I asked him what was wrong, to which he replied, “Dad, Christmas is all about Santa.”
What the...?
I was dumbstruck to say the least. We had intentionally removed Santa from our life to avoid just such a confession. Santa just simply wasn’t a part of Zane’s life in our home... period! And yet somewhere in his four years of life, he had learned what we had been trying to avoid, “Dad, Christmas is all about Santa.”
Over the next 10 minutes or so... I tried to explain to Zane that Santa is not real and Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth. Zane patiently and politely listened to all my attempts and simply responded every time with, “Dad, Christmas is all about Santa.” I realized there is no reasoning with a 4 year old and like it or not, Zane’s first collision with culture was going to happen on our picture perfect family evening right when I was feeling really good about how we as a family were celebrating Christmas.
I get this sort of ominous feeling we have just begun dealing with these collisions with culture in our parenting of Zane. It’s the feeling of maybe we are just seeing the tip of the ice berg. I hope the rest of our life is not filled with these, “What the?...” moments in parenting. This is usually where parents who have gone before us laugh, with a, “Ha Ha, You just wait.” sort of laugh, which usually comes across with just a little too much enjoyment in it or at least enough mirth to make us nervous.
The point is none of us can escape the culture we live in. None of us can protect our kids or ourselves completely from the influence of the world. The highest fences are scaled, the thickest bars are dissolved and before we know it we are thinking like, acting like and content to be what the world promotes and ignoring the voice of our Shepherd. Pastor Rob used to always say, “We shouldn’t be surprised when we find our selves in sin. We are bound to fail.” In the midst of our sin (our failure) the Lord calls us to repent. To turn from our way, to follow his way.
The Christian life is loaded with “What the...?” moments, when we look up and notice we have wandered from the Lord. It’s what happens at these “What the...?” moments we need to focus on. For the Lord calls us to listen for his voice, turn away from what ever way we were headed before and follow him, while calling out, “Sorry Lord, I’m coming.”
I shared something while preaching at Main Street a few weeks ago, which I came up with and I think it will be helpful for you.
Repentance is not failure, repentance is faithfulness.
When you get to these “What the...?” moments of life, don’t be surprised your there, just repent. Listen to his Voice, trust in him, redirect and follow His will. Besides you know His will is what’s best for you.
And so it has been with Zane. We are not going to give in just because in his cute little four year old mind, “Christmas is all about Santa.” We will continue the course, sharing with him again and again that Christmas is about Jesus. In our “What the...?” moment we turned to the Lord and asked for forgiveness, because it’s pretty obvious that removing Santa is not enough. Zane needed more about Jesus’ birth. So we turn from the way we realized we were going and are now sharing Jesus’ birth with him every day as Christmas approaches. And we will keeping going along, until the next, “What the...?” moment, where we will begin all over again in faithfulness to the Reason for the Season.
Have a Blessed Merry Christmas,
Pastor Guy Roberts
