Santa and the Bunny
As Christians, we always fight against Easter Bunnies and Santa Clauses and Easter Eggs and Reindeers and so on and so forth because we believe in the true meaning of Easter and Christmas. That sounded cliched doesn't it? We always speak of the "fake" stuff as though they're all some form of evil. Perhaps it is so, but I also wonder if the social construction of these animated characters can be a good thing.
Millions upon millions of people haven't heard of Jesus, but have heard of Easter and Christmas, possibly thanks to the idealogy of Santa and the Bunny. Before jumping to the conclusion to simply say that the word is delluded, let me suggest a thought: People remember Easter and Christmas. Even if it is for the wrong reason, we should see it as an opportunity, an opening, to intitiate the discussion.
Imagine if no one invented Santa and the Bunny, there is the freakish possibility that these important events would have been forgotten by now, or merely stored in history books.
Yes, some would say, God would have just used another means to make people remember Christmas and Easter. Truth be told, I am sure God had intended fully for everyone to remember Jesus as the centerpiece of generational inheritance of such history, but we must also remember that the devil is at work too.
True, I don't believe in Santa and the Bunny, but I also think that it is better to have these characters around so that we can compare these trivialties to the true meaning of Easter and Christmas. It is a good launchpad for many good things.
As said earlier, I am sure that God being the perfectly rightheous God in the universe didn't plan to create Santa and the Bunny, but He very surely has allowed it to be in society today. Why? Beats me, but there is a reason why Santa and the Bunny has been that which carried these occasions through the course of human history.
People today might learn of Easter and Christmas by means, methods and idealogies not originally intended by the Christian faith, but with the existence of these funtastic characters, we stand a chance to convince people of the "truth", that people will remember Easter and Christmas in its true essence for life.
Would you rather a verbal or written knowledge of Jesus in a potentially routine mode of inheritance, where you risk people knowing about Jesus but never fully understanding His great works, or would you rather have an "evil" opposition, where people can be taught to raise the question of, "who is Jesus?" and then seek to understand His great works for themselvses. If anything, it makes the experience personal and real to each and everyone who finds the "truth".
So in some ways, I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank God for these false constructions.
Millions upon millions of people haven't heard of Jesus, but have heard of Easter and Christmas, possibly thanks to the idealogy of Santa and the Bunny. Before jumping to the conclusion to simply say that the word is delluded, let me suggest a thought: People remember Easter and Christmas. Even if it is for the wrong reason, we should see it as an opportunity, an opening, to intitiate the discussion.
Imagine if no one invented Santa and the Bunny, there is the freakish possibility that these important events would have been forgotten by now, or merely stored in history books.
Yes, some would say, God would have just used another means to make people remember Christmas and Easter. Truth be told, I am sure God had intended fully for everyone to remember Jesus as the centerpiece of generational inheritance of such history, but we must also remember that the devil is at work too.
True, I don't believe in Santa and the Bunny, but I also think that it is better to have these characters around so that we can compare these trivialties to the true meaning of Easter and Christmas. It is a good launchpad for many good things.
As said earlier, I am sure that God being the perfectly rightheous God in the universe didn't plan to create Santa and the Bunny, but He very surely has allowed it to be in society today. Why? Beats me, but there is a reason why Santa and the Bunny has been that which carried these occasions through the course of human history.
People today might learn of Easter and Christmas by means, methods and idealogies not originally intended by the Christian faith, but with the existence of these funtastic characters, we stand a chance to convince people of the "truth", that people will remember Easter and Christmas in its true essence for life.
Would you rather a verbal or written knowledge of Jesus in a potentially routine mode of inheritance, where you risk people knowing about Jesus but never fully understanding His great works, or would you rather have an "evil" opposition, where people can be taught to raise the question of, "who is Jesus?" and then seek to understand His great works for themselvses. If anything, it makes the experience personal and real to each and everyone who finds the "truth".
So in some ways, I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank God for these false constructions.
2 Comments:
Hey, great one, MY. (The post, not you.)
Other than being a horrifying resemblance of academic english (or, maybe...), yeah, very well said.
Well, thanks for your comment.
whos't his by the way?
meng yoe
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