Santa Claus and Other Theological Tales

We tell tales to ourselves and to our children. Some of them are true (they conform to the complex reality of the world), but many are not. Recently I was listening to two of my grandchildren (ages 7 and 9) talking about Santa Claus, “Some people say that Santa isn’t real” one said, “its only our parents. Well, I believe in Santa Claus because mommy and daddy say he’s real and brings us presents at Christmas.” You could hear the children trying to work out the theology of a cultural myth.

I was struck by this conversation, but didn’t comment. Later, I reflected on that storyline and where it will eventually take my grandchildren, and the conundrum that will be created in them by such a tale. Sooner than later, they will know the truth—that friends and family are Santa, and they will have to adjust to a sense of betrayal and disbelief, and that they were allowed to live with an illusion. They will grow up, then, into more adult sensibilities.

So it is with contemporary religious language. We are given to believe time and again that “God will take care of you” (Like Santa). “Nothing bad can ever happen because God loves you…” It’s a fiction, of course. The “real world” and divine Reality is something quite different. In it, the Divine (as parent) indeed provides and cares, but also allows us to struggle mightily with evil, darkness, despair and tragedy. God is not Santa Claus, because love is not about our emotional security or comfort, but about our eternal maturity. We must grow past the fairy tale of God into the Reality of God, and that we ourselves are divine. And in the end, if there is ever to be a Santa (and there will be thousands of them), we are it—in a universe whose treasury lies everywhere.