Is God Like Santa?

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

This time of year the kids are so excited! They are counting down the days until Christmas. The anticipation is thick in the air, and the children are trying to do their best to be good. The “Elf on the Shelf” was not a tradition I grew up with. I have to say, I am seriously impressed with the antics that some of these elves come up with. I’m not sure I could be so creative! Even though there was no Elf sitting around my house when I was young, I do remember being told that I needed to be good, or Santa wouldn’t bring me any presents.

Sometimes, I think we believe God is like Santa Claus. He is always watching, and He knows everything we do -- good or bad. But I think there is a tendency to also feel like I have to be good for God to bless me. And if something bad happens in my life, then it must be because God is giving me what I deserve because of my sins. I think it is tempting to pray to God with my wish list and ask Him to give me, give me, give me, and then work really hard to try to earn His favor so that I, hopefully, get everything on my list.

But God is so different from Santa Claus. Yes, He is omniscient, and yes, He is always with us, but He is not weighing out our actions on a scale to determine if we earn a blessing from Him. God is perfectly holy, and none of us could ever meet His standards of perfect holiness on our own. We are sinners. But that doesn’t mean that God withholds His blessings. In fact, that’s the very definition of grace: favor that we do not deserve.

There is nothing in the Bible that says you can earn God’s grace -- if you could, then it wouldn’t be grace anymore. God wants us to do good things. God works in us to bring about good things. But He chooses to work things together for His glory and our good, even when we fail.

Christmas is the ultimate act of God’s grace - He sent Jesus to earth to take the punishment we deserved so that by believing in Him, we could receive the gift of eternal life. Through the perfect blood of Jesus and our faith in Him, we can receive righteousness that we could never earn.

Yes, God wants us to be obedient, but He knows the choices we will make before we even make them. And He is always there to pick us up, dust us off, and forgive us completely when we fall to temptation. And what’s even more amazing is how He can even turn our failures around and use them for good! Even things that are really hard, things that are definitely not on our wish list -- God uses those to shape us and to help us know Him better and make us more like Jesus.

I think there are many children who understand that there will be gifts under their tree come Christmas morning regardless of how they behaved all year. As parents, we don’t withhold the presents, even though we know our kids weren’t perfect all year. We love them, and we want to give them good gifts. How much more does our Heavenly Father love us? How much more was He willing to give?

Thank You, God, for Your gift of grace! Thank You for giving Jesus to die for us so that we can be forgiven and righteous before You. Forgive us for treating You like Santa Claus. Help us to rest in Your grace and to trust You more to fulfill Your purposes in our lives.