"Imagine This!" Rated PG-13

Mrs. Claus was in top form.  Her audience, consisting of daycare kids ages 2-5, were in awe that Mrs. Claus had taken time to visit them. And, what with Christmas Day being so close, of course Santa was not expected to be there in person.  Mrs. Claus acknowledged the Elf on the Shelf, recalling for the children the work he had done so well at the North Pole before being dispatched to be Santa’s eyes and ears in the daycare center. The curious children asked the questions about the reindeer and flying around the world and a dozen other topics which gave evidence to their being true believers.  All except for one little girl who stood quietly in the back of the room.  She eyed Mrs. Claus with great suspicion, for she had the appearance and voice which looked just too much familiar, bearing an eerie resemblance to the lady from the front office who sometimes comes to talk to the adults running their daycare.  And anyway, perhaps the little girl wondered, how exactly did Mrs. Claus get here if the reindeer are at the North Pole?  Well, the time came for Mrs. Claus to head back to supervise the final preparations for Santa’s big day, so she bade farewell to the children.  All except the doubting little girl who now slowly approached Mrs. Claus and as she got close she peered into her eyes, just double-checking if this was the front office lady or not.  And then she reached up with her tiny arms and put them around Mrs. Claus’ neck and hugged her tight saying, “Thank you so much for coming. I am so glad you are real.”

Now, here’s why this is rated PG-13: Mrs. Claus is not real.  One day reality meets our imagination, and one day, sometimes with a boom and sometimes like a slow dawn, we learn it isn’t so.  But, we, or least I, never want to be the one who tells a true believer that it isn’t so.  Imagination is, after all, the beginning of faith.  You see, children of the Most High God are introduced to the concept of a God they cannot see; and Christian children are introduced to the idea of the baby Jesus, at about the same time they first meet the red-suited couple and their little helpers.  They imagine it all. And they have no reason not to believe any of it because Momma or Grandpa says it’s so, and so it is.  But then, one day, we all learn the Claus’s are not real.  And then something amazing happens: the God, the Jesus, we imagined becomes more real.  Born inside of us is a faith which knows that God, that the Baby and his young mother Mary and her trusting husband Joseph are as real as Papa and Grandma told us.  Oh, sometimes we wonder where God is, and maybe if he is.  But the gift of the Spirit is a sign just when we need it that the Gift in the straw is real.  We may approach the stable doubting,  needing to look someone right in the eye, just double-checking. But then each Christmas we finally are able to say, “Thank you so much for coming. I am so glad you are real.”

Merry Christmas!