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I have a confession to make.

Although I am very anti-santa, I must admit that I love the movie The Santa Clause (the one with Tim Allen).

Lately, however, I've been thinking about a certain scene from that movie. You see, everyone was thinking that the dad (who was divorced from his wife) and his son were crazy because the son thought that his dad was santa and his dad was encouraging the idea. So the mother and her new husband were trying to get official custody of the boy, because they stopped trusting the father.

So they were sitting waiting for the boy to get out of talking with the lawyer, and they started discussing why they stopped believing in santa clause.

This is a paraphrase of what the woman said, "I was probably about eight. I used to send santa letters every week. I had always gotten everything I had asked for. But then, that year, I didn't get my Mystery Date board game, and I stopped believing."

This is a paraphrase of what the man said, "I was two, and it was a whistle."

With the man, it was when he was so young and his "faith" in santa was weak and easy to break.

With the woman, she had been very involved. Talking to him, trusting in him, but when she didn't get one simple thing--despite all the previous things she received--she stopped.

Despite the fact that they were talking about santa and I am talking about Something completely different (Something that is actually real), I drew some parallels between this and Christianity--and of what the devil uses to break us.

Maybe you walked away from your faith a long time ago. Maybe times are hard, and you can't help but think that God and everything else you have ever believed in isn't real (Anyone else raising their hands?). There are so many possibilities. . . But you know where you're at.  

And, more (most) importantly, so does God.

And He's watching over you. Not only that. . .but He's singing over you. What an awesome picture. God, holding you in His mighty arms that will never let go, singing a song to you.  

And, your life song will change. But you have to trust that no matter how hard it gets, that even when you are so close to giving in, God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him according to His purpose (see Romans 8).

So, I ask you this: What made you stop believing?

Maybe it was because you didn't get something from God that you thought was good, or maybe you had to give up something for Him that you thought was good but isn't according to Him.

Maybe you think it's not fair that you didn't get this. There you were, trying to have a relationship with God, making changes in your life, and you didn't think it was fair that that couldn't be enough. That God wants 100%, 100% of the time.

Well, let me ask you this. Is it fair that God sent His Son to die, to save a world that was rightfully His (and His creation) anyway, when He could have just let us suffer in blindness and hell?

And now, mind you, when Jesus hung on that cross, he didn't have a pretty crown on his head and just hung up there magically.

Because covenants have to be sealed by sacrifice. As in, blood.

The Messiah had his hands and feet nailed into the cross and a crown of thorns on his head. I wouldn't be surprised if all of these things each caused a tremendous amount of blood. Christ suffered.

And by the blood of The Lamb, the new covenant is sealed and we no longer need to kill animals to be close to God and to be sanctified.

Jesus was (and is) the final lamb.

You see, all of other sacrifices died when they were killed. But not Christ.

Because he was raised from the dead, Christ's sacrifice endures. He defeated sin, so that it couldn't defeat you.

That's how much He cares.

I don't care what you're going through, I don't care what you've done, because no sin is greater than what Jesus did for us. For everyone.

God overcame death itself; He has overcome the world. And He has overcome your sin and insecurity right along with it.

So quite making excuses, because there are none.

~Elizabeth