It
has always seemed rather odd to me that there is a song about Santa Claus with
this lyric: “He sees you when you’re sleeping; he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be
good for goodness sake!” The song I’m
referencing is called “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. The implication is that Santa is some sort of
all-knowing being. Such a notion is, of
course, preposterous. But I want you to
think about this assertion with me for a moment anyway.
If
such an idea were true, it’s interesting how people seem to intuitively know
that they haven’t been good; they have only warranted a lump of coal in their
stocking. This was recently evidenced to
me when I was shopping at a retail store.
Two Christmas shirts caught my attention; they are humorous, but also illuminating. One said, “Dear Santa, I can explain.” Another read: “Dear Santa, define good.” Rather than parading their own goodness, they
are offering excuses. I think it’s an
accurate assessment of the human heart.
The
fact of the matter is this: even though Santa Claus isn’t an all-knowing
omniscient deity, the God of the universe has perfect knowledge of
everyone. In Psalm 139, the writer says
to God, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from
afar. You discern my going out and my
lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”
God knows. And, make no mistake
about it: He sees that we are not “good for goodness sake.” He sees that we fail, falter, and sin. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
A
few months before my dad passed away, he had the opportunity to interview Greg
Grandchamp on the radio regarding his book “In Pursuit of Truth”. Check out this excerpt from that book:
“In
the eye of the Lord, none are good,
not even one. All are deserving the
wrath of God. But more importantly, by
believing you are exempted from Christ’s redemption, you completely cheapen,
and even dismiss, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. I know the thoughts: “Thanks, Jesus. Appreciate the attempt…but nobody can forgive
me, and no sacrifice will ever be enough.”
However, He already knows precisely who are you and what you’ve
done. And He sacrificed [Himself] anyway because He
loves you.” Amen to that!
Later
on in the book, Grandchamp writes, “Christianity is a person. It is a relationship with that person…our sin
has caused a cavernous gap, one that we cannot – in our own effort – cross. Christ is the bridge that reconciles us with
God. All we need to do is choose
it.” It’s my prayer that, if you’ve
never done that, you would do it today.
Kevin
