James wrote:


> True Christians follow God's word, the Holy Bible. (2 Ti 3:16) Thus
> they don't lie about Santa Clause, or the tooth fairy, or the Easter
> Bunny, or any other falsehood out there. Col 3:9,


Hmmmm....so anyone who sins is not a "true Christian"?

God's Word is about forgiveness of sins.  It's not a 
guidebook for pharisiacal living.  Anyone who says "I am
following God's Word because I'm not sinning", has
missed the entire point of God's Word.  

Indeed, God's Word has plenty to say about sin.  It
says "All men are liars."  From the moment we wake up
in the morning till the time we fall asleep, we spend
our whole day lying.  We shave to convince the world 
we're younger than we are.  We dress so that people
will think we're higher-class than we are.  Women
wear make-up and control-top panty hose.

When someone asks us how we are, we say "Fine, thanks."
When our debit card is declined at the restaurant, we
say "That's not possible!".  When we're served something
detestable at someone else's house, we don't say "Oh, man,
I hate mushrooms", but rather "Gee, this cassarole is
delicious, I must have the recipe."

When we get home and Wife says "How was work?" we say
"OK", and neglect to tell her about the brutal staff
meeting where we got beat up so badly.  

When we post to the newsgroup, we're able to hide 
all of our personal traits of which we are ashamed. We
can pretend to be as moral/educated/devout/pious as we
please.

And if we are in dire financial straights, we hide
it from our children so they won't be unnessarily
insecure.

And now, amid this ocean of falsehood and deceit in which
we are all drowning, some of us are "true Christians" 
because we avoided one lie?  

Further, the concept of Santa Claus tells a _truth_ in
concrete form.  My kids are aged 23 and 19.  It's been
a while since we've had a discussion about Santa Claus,
but when they used to say "There is no Santa", my response
was "You just don't understand about Santa Claus."

In our house, Santa Claus didn't keep a list, but rather, 
everyone got presents because they are loved and cherished, 
even if they sin.  This _is_ the Gospel message in 
a concrete form.  And the Gospel is not a lie.  A child
who matures to find out that Santa is not corporeal,
doesn't say "I was lied to", but "I now understand that
Santa Claus is a picture for an important and _true_
concept."


The reason we remember the saints is because of the
examples they set.  And St. Nicholas shows us God's
unconditional love by his example.

Bart

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