Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now since Christmas. 'So, did Santa visit you or have you been bad?' That was what one friend asked me. It was in jest, but those words still ring softly in the back of my mind, albeit annoyingly like the fear of your own shadow in a dark alleyway.
I thought about my response for a while, and came up with something like “Santa? Na, none of Satan this Christmas, it’s all Jesus!” We’ve been friends since year 7, so I’m sure he chuckled a little on the other end.
Just the other day, in reflection on that coupled with the whole ‘festive season’ I also thought… “can Christians in the western world (myself included of course!) say and really mean that one awesome verse in Philippians” - “To Live Is Christ and To Die is Gain”? I’m not sure if I can. To live is good stuff, especially here in Australia. Okay, you might whine about the 6 season weather in the one day, and snow in summer during Christmas in Australia (‘traditionally’ it is stinking hot, 35 degrees and as dry as charred toast on a bad day), but generally, life is great, yes even when your skin peels for the next four weeks because you had a ‘great day at the beach with friends’.
I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but here in Aussie land we have everything at our disposal, from having your groceries dropped off at your front door to having your car hand washed and polished for you while you do that ‘Christmas shopping’.
And I suspect the rest of the unbelieving world sees right through the Church, when we preach “To Live Is Christ and To Die is Gain”, when everything we do is revolved around our culture and the person next to us; who is compared to the next person, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next…
I was online an Internode Server and saw someone’s nickname “Satan’s Claws”. Intriguing. Why would one select such a name? Well I suppose if other people have nicknames such as “JESUS”, “[GOD] ANGER”, “Jesus the wife beater”, then I suppose “Satan’s Claws” isn’t so bad (context, context, context remember). Just as an aside, there was an interesting response to,“Jesus the wife beater” nickname. Suffice it to say that person wasn’t “valid” on the server for an extended period of time.
So, my old time friend’s comment: “did Santa visit you this Christmas or have you been bad?” Well my answer should’ve been, “I’m always bad, not doing ‘good’ to please even myself, because I cannot, even with all of my willpower. That is why this Christmas, as every other Christmas should’ve been, and every Christmas should be, that Jesus is the be all and end all this season. If Santa had visited me, and I’d “shopped till I dropped” from my work’s Christmas’ bonus then I’d be in “Satan’s Claws”.
Huh, who would’ve thought an encounter online would’ve sparked such profound Q&A.
"Satan’s Claws."
Crude, but effective.
Psalm 40:1-3
