This Christmas, Don’t Misplace Your Hope

This Christmas, Don’t Misplace Your Hope

Since the editorial entitled “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus” first appeared in the New York Sun in 1897, it’s been reprinted every Christmas in newspapers across America. A little girl named Virginia wrote the editor saying that she had put her hope in Santa, but her friends said he didn’t exist. In his editorial Frank Church wrote that without hope in Santa “there would be no childlike faith,” and “the eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.” His editorial ended: “No Santa! Thank God he lives forever ... Ten thousand years from now, he’ll continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Church’s editorial is a good example of Paul’s description of the deceived: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25 NIV). The devil continues to use this editorial to give children false hope. With such expressions as “childlike faith,” “eternal light” and “he lives forever,” Church makes Santa sound like the Savior. The Bible says true “childlike faith” is needed, but not to get into a make-believe land: “Unless you ... become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). While Church wants us to believe that Santa is the source of “eternal light,” the Bible says it’s Jesus who gives eternal life to all who receive Him. Those who do “become children of God” (Jn. 1:12).

The Sun editorial said that Santa makes “glad the heart of childhood,” but the Bible says “the grace of God” makes us glad (Acts 11:23). The editorial says that the best gift-giver is Santa, but the Bible says it’s God: “Every good and perfect gift is from ... the Father of heavenly lights” (Jas. 1:17). And the best gift of all is Jesus: “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).

This Christmas, don’t misplace your hope. The best gift giver is God, and the best gift of all is His Son, Jesus Christ.

By Larry Ondrejack