It took J. Fred Coots a whole 10 minutes to come up with the skeleton of this song. I can’t help but wonder if that’s because his formation was such that this was stuck in his craw and he was mad about it.
Maybe he was threatened as a kid by this dictatorial omniscient Santa figure (as many are).
Behave yourself or you won’t get nothin’ for Christmas.
Santa is gonna put coal in your stocking because you're bad.
He knows. He’s watching.
You better watch out, You better not cry
You better not pout I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list, he's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping
And he knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake
Ok, ok. The tune is catchy.
But I can’t help but wonder if the years since this sticky little tune was written, haven’t also served to establish in our hearts and minds a whole load of hooey about who God is too.
Think about it!
We have all had the experience of telling ourselves not to do our sins so publicly otherwise people/God will know who we really are! So, we “manage our sins” by doing the ones we know about in private!
We’ve made God this Santa type who is distant, watching, and waiting for us to mess up so he can grab his ever-present red pen to scratch us off his naughty list and move us to the nice list.
To avoid this we put on the dog when Santa-God comes around so we’re looking good and we can maybe throw him off the scent! Maybe if we’re good enough we can actually manipulate the whole situation into getting us what we want!
With all of my heart I do not believe there is one similarity between whoever this “God” is and the one who I know loves and is present with me.
Without threats.
Without malice.
Without a list.
AND with open hands - welcoming me always. Encouraging me to be who I am created to be.
And it is because of God’s goodness that I can even think about being good.
God knows my default behavior can be pretty unsavory and hangs around to help me through my mess. To hold me in spite of my nasty underbelly that shows up now and then.
(Ok, it shows up a lot.)
I can be real about everything!
I am welcomed to be who I am created to be.
I read this quote this morning.
“Wide awake to the presence of God, I realized I had been so focused on asking why a good God allowed bad things to happen that I was missing out on the nearness of God all along. In becoming preoccupied with the why, I was missing the who.”
Bless you Margaret.
Thank you for these words.
The nearness of God.
Even when I am not at my best.
Even when I am pouting (which I am wont to do).
Even when I am sleeping,