I once believed in Santa Claus. I thought I loved Santa Claus.

“You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out
Who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
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!”

It seems hard to truly love that Santa Claus, but easy as hell to fear that Santa Claus.

Truthfully, Santa was a big dude with a white beard who watched your every move; he looked nice but you certainly better not piss him off. If you piss him off, you don’t receive a present. Santa loves you, but if you don’t get any gifts its because you are bad.

Sadly, for many the “theology” of the nature of Santa and the natue of God are the same.

I guess I never really loved Santa Claus;
I feared Santa Claus.
I just wanted the gifts,

“Dude, I’ll sit on your knee and smile and hope that I can convince you that I’m a good kid and deserve the Hot Wheels Racing Set that the brainwashing gurus at Mattel have
hypnotized me into believing I wanted on Saturday morning cartoons.”

That feels fear-based, shaming and stifiling to one’s soul, yet it’s much of the theology that is being preached all over the world.

Perhaps when one no longer fears hell (or missing out on all the presents one gets for being good), only then can he/she come to a place where one can truly experience the love God that sets him/her free.

Perhaps, where God’s love for me and my love for God intersect is the true-self– Christmas– the child is born.

I mean, if I had a child, I wouldn’t want him/her to fear me; I wouldn’t want it fear my punishment. How is it possible for me to truly love and be loved by someone who I fear will punish me? If my motivation is to avoid punishment, I am not doing it out of love; I’m acting out of fear, and I am already living in hell. It seems that perfect love casts out fear—and isn’t it Love that casts us all out of hell?

And I was thinking about Jesus. I don’t mean, the mild-mannered Super-Jesus with the magical, wondrous power robe who dodges crosses and is faster than a speeding nail; I am talking about the fully-human who lived the way; lived the truth; lived the life and in doing so realized, recognized, and experienced God by living from the core of his true-self which was, is, and will always be Divine.