He sees you when you're sleeping And he knows when you're awake He knows if you've been bad or good So be good for goodness sake You better watch out! You better not cry You better not pout, I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town
— “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie
Christmas time shows how our culture loves Santa. He has songs, movies, jokes, and lore. You learn from these of his many characteristics; he’s loving, forgiving, all-knowing, good, and wise. We love him because of what he stands for: seeing the good in people, rewarding good behavior, and giving selflessly.
Santa is an interesting character. He has some fun movies and songs. We like to see “Santa” hats around, sing songs about reindeer with glowing noses and think about masses of elves making Christmas presents. There is nothing wrong with a good story, sometimes though these stories create a substitute for what we really need.
In movies like “Miracle on 34th Street” you’re confronted by an unfortunate comparison between belief in Santa Clause and belief in God. Santa is seen as an all-knowing, all-loving, and ultimately good being. It’s presented as though all you have to do is believe in Santa and you’ll have a great Christmas.
When you examine the truths of Scripture, you find that these attributes best describe God, not Santa. Here’s a couple that the Bible attributes to God.
God is all-knowing
1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Psalm 139:1–2
This is great! God knows everything about you. The understanding that God sees and knows everything about us is the motivation behind the Fear of the Lord.
Being omniscient, He is the best accountability for us to do right. He is also able to be perfectly just based on His perfect knowledge.
God gives all good things
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17
God is the giver of every good gift. All of the best things in life come from God. He knows the things we need and He even graciously gives us the things we want.
Why Santa and not God?
People seem to like Santa and not God because Santa Clause doesn’t demand any permanent, or eternal accountability. He comes around at Christmas time but is conveniently absent for the rest of the year.
The stereotype of Santa gives us what we want but God gives us what we need all the time. We need God’s perfect gifts all the time, we don’t NEED everything we WANT. We need the accountability that comes with God being all-knowing. We may want to hide things from Him, but the fact that He knows everything about us and still forgives and restores our relationships should bring us great comfort.
