Becoming Like Little Children

In the conclusion of my book Christmas Ancestry, I included a picture of me sitting in a hospital in Philadelphia, holding my firstborn granddaughter—a little premature baby. I was wondering if I would see her grow up.

Well, this is eight years later, and I'm living with her. She has a little sister called Scottie Love, and we get to play often.

Just the other week, Milo is the big sister, so she wanted to put a fake beard on me to make me look like Santa. It was so funny for her. She went and got the hat, and you know, I looked like Santa, so I went along with the game. I picked Milo up, put her on my knee, and said with my best Santa voice, "Hello, little girl, what would you like for Christmas?"

Well, she's laughing her head off. And of course, Scottie's fighting with her now because she wants up on my knee.

I picked Scottie up, looked her in the eye, and said, "Hi, little girl, what would you like for Christmas?"

Well, I'm telling you—in her eyes, she believed that I was Santa. She had stood there and watched me put all the stuff on, and she said back to me, as serious as get out, "chocolate!" It's like the scene in Miracle on 34th Street.

But I want to say to you, it's not fiction. It's being childlike.

You know, in the same way, everybody gets old enough, and you get the shock of your life when you realize it’s all been fake [with regard to Santa]. That’s not in the same category as Jesus. Jesus is not in the same category as Santa or the tooth fairy or “Mother Earth.”

And I'm telling you this story because Jesus said, "Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." And that's not fiction—it's about being childlike.

Because Christmas heralds the fact that God is with us. Emmanuel.

At the birth of John the Baptist, his father Zechariah—the high priest—prophesied. He said, "Light has come into the world to all those living in the shadow of death."

That's good news.