Commonalities between Labor Day, Santa

This year’s flying by, with Labor Day being next Monday. While shopping recently, I saw the store I was in already had Halloween candy for sale, which made me wonder when the Christmas candy and ads would be out.

Then, I thought again about Labor Day and wondered if Santa Claus and Labor Day had anything in common.

We usually only hear about Santa doing anything, like work, when he delivers presents overnight before Christmas morning. Completely encompassing the globe north, south, east and west is a pretty big job. So, he and his reindeer probably take a few days off after Christmas to catch up on sleep and get over jet (sleigh) lag.

Otherwise, someone must make presents for future delivery, but the elves do that. I suspect that, because the letters to Santa aren’t mailed until shortly before Christmas, the elves probably work year-round to maintain an inventory of the more popular presents and scurry at the last minute to fulfill special requests. But that doesn’t address what Santa does in the off-season.

A song says that Santa knows whether we’re naughty or nice, which probably requires many global trips throughout the year to know who gets presents or switches and onions when he comes for Christmas.

Unlike Santa, God doesn’t have to travel the world to know what’s going on. He sees everything past, present, and future simultaneously, which is also how he knows who will become Christians, without causing or preventing anyone’s salvation because he wants everyone to be saved (Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 33:13-15; Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:24; John 7:17; 2 Peter 3:8-9).

Like Santa knowing who’s naughty or nice to receive presents or not, because God knows who’s actually choosing to do his will or not, he’s preparing a place for each to spend eternity that’ll be far better than presents for the nice and far worse than switches and onions for the naughty (John 14:1-3; 5:24-29; Matthew 24:45-51).

Being nice on our own terms won’t suffice; we must do God’s will to go to heaven, which isn’t really so difficult (Romans 2:13; 10:12-13; Matthew 7:21-23; 1 John 5:1-13). God expects perfection that we cannot attain on our own; so he’s also prepared the way for that (Matthew 5:48; James 1:16-25; Hebrews 9:14-15; 12:22-29; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 13:5-11; Philippians 3:10-16; Romans 7:14-25; Acts 2:38-39; 1 John 1:5-9).

Finally, like anticipating Santa coming to town, we’re to look forward to Jesus’ promised return by living to please him (2 Peter 3:10-14; Titus 2:11-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).

While waiting, we have God-given work to do that includes our lifestyle so others can see and be drawn to the obedience that saves (Ephesians 2:10; Matthew 5:14-16; 28:18-20; Acts 5:32; Romans 8:9-17; 6:3-5; Galatians 3:26-29; 4:6-7; 5:16-25).

That’s the commonality between Labor Day and Santa (or actually God). Whether or not Santa concerns you, God and our work are connected and he’s watching until he comes to town (Psalm 34:15-16). Are you living to please God or Santa?

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].