Make Belief

Over the Christmas festivities, it dawned on me that parents become experts at fooling children into a belief of something that is completely fictional. We lay the groundwork with stories, songs, movies, traditions and rewards (or coal) for their behaviour and we are not alone in this wide spread deception. The whole community engages in an elaborate scheme to promote the Santa sensation with shopping mall appearances, letter boxes, photos, NASA sleigh tracking and news reports of flying reindeer. Parents tinker away in the back shed until midnight, assembling trampolines and bicycles while kids dream of a guy in a red suit drifting through the clouds.

Have you ever asked yourself why? Why go to such lengths to make believe? For many, it’s because that’s what our parents did for us, we hope to pass on the joyful spirit and wonder of Christmas in our families. It certainly is satisfying to see the look of amazement on my little kids faces as they discover the half eaten cookies and munched carrot. I feel that the cultivation of wonder and awe in the mystery of the hidden Santa is somewhat transferable to their faith in an unseen God. The concepts of transubstantiation and omnipresence are certainly as challenging to wrangle as one man delivering gifts to every child in the world.

My 10 year old asked me, “why do people who aren’t religious believe in and celebrate Christmas?” and my response was, “sometimes faith can have an influence on culture”. I went onto explain that culture also has an influence on religious practice. Certainly, the advent waiting for the birth of Christ can easily be overshadowed by the purchase of shiny new toys. In the lead up to Christmas, it was harder to convince my older two children to keep their faith in the Santa mythology. After discussing the physics behind how fast Santa’s sled would need to travel in order to deliver that many presents in one night, I strongly suspected that my boys were beginning to doubt the legitimacy of Santa. However, things quickly turned around after the payload of gifts was discovered Christmas morning. The transaction of reward for belief was completed for another year.

In his book ‘Will Our Children Have Faith’, John Westerhoff (1976) described the faith development of children mostly as experiential, that they simply participate in the rituals and practices of the family and that a questioning and reasoned develops through adolescence. My little children seem happy to move through the motions, but I can see my older boys are clearly moving towards this next stage and are no doubt having conversations with their peers about who still believes. I wonder how long the currency of belief will maintain their convictions.

The intention of parents and our efforts to perpetuate the myth are good in nature, but how do they compare to our efforts to develop their belief in God? The Christmas reminders seem to ramp up around the end of the year, which is good timing for the threat of, “no presents from Santa” used as behaviour management. Yet, this consequential morality seems a little out of alignment with a loving God who forgives our sins. Do we cause confusion for children when it comes to their faith in God, an entity who exists in the realm of believing adults, who sing, make movies, tell stories and promise an eternal reward for good behaviour and belief? How can we equip children to cope with this dissonance?

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

Surely it is our collective witness and firm belief that will help children develop their own conviction about the reality of God in their lives. We also have the stories of all those who have come before us and the saints who have demonstrated unwavering faith. I pray that my children will be aware of the Holy Spirit acting in their lives and come to know their living Father in Heaven. Ultimately we can’t purchase or make belief for our children. We can only hope they discover that the gift of faith is far more valuable than anything placed under a Christmas tree.