It’s that time of year, we are counting down the days until Christmas! For most, Christmas time is filled with excitement and anticipation, and our house is no exception. With small kiddos there is no lack of Christmas spirit in our house. Our oldest is 4 years old now so we are tackling the conversation of what part does Santa Claus play in Christmas in our home (and all the Santa lovers rolled their eyes).
I understand that there are extremes on both sides (as with most debatable topics) but for us it is truly important to teach our kids about the truth, and that truth being grounded in our faith in Christ. I asked my son Ezra several weeks ago what the most important thing about Christmas was and his first response was “Santa”. Now mind you, we haven’t crossed that bridge with him yet as we hadn’t even decided how we were going to approach Santa. This was solely based on Christmas movies he had seen. I said, “no, that's not it. What else do you think it could be?”. His next guess was, “presents”. I said, “no, that’s not it. Any other guesses?”. With a confused look on his face he admitted that he was out of guesses and told me he didn’t know. I proceeded to explain the importance of Christmas and the coming of Christ.
In our world today we know that we would likely get significantly more criticism from people if we said that we weren’t doing Santa with our kids than if we said that we weren’t focusing on the story of Jesus and his birth. A sad reality.
To help us keep Jesus at the center of Christmas we purchased Advent Blocks - The King is Coming (link here), which is a new approach to the traditional advent calendar where each day you take a block with the number associated to the day of the month, read a story, and turn the block to reveal a picture related to that story. There are 25 stories and each one follows a timeline for the coming of Christ, starting with Adam and Eve and working through the history of God’s people, kings, prophets, and all those used by God to pave the way for the coming of Jesus.
The thing I love about each story is that its built on the same foundational principle. That being, God desperately wants to be in close relationship with his people. You see examples of God helping his people in every way and in every situation, and yet, in each story you find people starting to believe in themselves more than God. They stop listening and start distancing themselves from God. As a result, in every situation we see difficulty and destruction ensue.
It is easy while reading these stories to point the finger and look at these people through history with a dumbfounded look on our face. How could they doubt God when they have seen him so clearly? He has shown up in so many situations to help them and save them, and yet they still doubt him and try to do things in their own power. And they fail every time. What are they thinking!?!?!
Insert mirror… pause.
Let us use this time, this Christmas season time, to remind ourselves that if we use no other example of how God has shown up in our lives to help us and save us from certain destruction, we can remember that he came here to be with us, knowing he would die for us, and then sent us help to be with us for the rest of time. There is no greater example of how deeply God desires to be in a close relationship with us, each and every day. And through that close relationship, to guide us, help us, lead us, and love us in such a way that we can experience him and this life in the exact way he intended from the beginning of time.
I will never stop telling my kids that the most important part of Christmas is Jesus. Santa can be a character, and presents can be enjoyed, but nothing will take the place of celebrating THE ONE AND ONLY GOD who has done everything to show us how much he loves us and wants to be with us.
Now, every time I ask my son – in a continuous effort to remind him – what the most important thing about Christmas is, he says, “Jesus”. I hope and pray that he never forgets that. And I pray the same for all of us.
It always has been, and it always will be, Jesus.
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