The Mystery and faith

A great editorial from the Wall Street Journal this past week:

I'm not sure that holding certain positions just to disagree with Richard Dawkins is the best tactic, but I've been much more secure in my faith since a few years ago I decided that it didn't (and couldn't) rest on the discovery of archeological "proof" or "scientific" studies on the efficacy of prayer.

And yet, I blanch at the idea that convincing our kids about the existence of a supernatural figure who "knows when you've been sleeping, knows when you're awake" and gives gifts to good little boys and girls while withholding them from the disobedient ones, only to pull the rug out from under them when they are old enough to catch mommy and daddy putting the gifts under the tree. Our tactic perhaps ought to be, rather than to manufacture the myth and tie gifts to behavior, to focus on the spirit of Christmas -- that Christ coming into the world has made potential saints of us all, spreading good cheer (common grace) and giving to those in need (anonymously, if possible). If that spirit is to be personified in a fat elf with red pajamas, so be it. He need not have all sorts of supernatural traits (omniscience, omnipresence) but perhaps the larger supernatural traits of forgiveness and generosity -- the image of the Divine by which God created us. These traits represent the breaking of the Curse, and the coming of Father Christmas to end our never-ending winter.