When my neighbor is visiting and abruptly says, “Oh! I have something for you! I’ll be right back,” my mind starts listing the possibilities. What could it be this time? Another box full of potatoes and onions? A dress she wants to give me? Candy or dessert for the kids (this is the most frequent answer)? Nothing prepared me for what she came back with this time …
As she handed over the life-size Santa Claus to my ten-year-old, I couldn’t quite hide my surprise (or displeasure), but what came out of my mouth was, “Oh wow, a life-size Santa … uh, thank you!” As my two daughters excitedly brought it into the house, my neighbor tacked on, “If you don’t like it or don’t want it, I’ll just take it back.” I wanted to say, “Yes, please take it back,” but what I said was, “Oh, the kids love it.” That’s the great thing about kids: I can answer honestly that they love something, even if I may have a different opinion.
So we dragged Santa up the front stairs to the living room and realized that he is the same height as my ten-year-old who was carrying him. We laughed about the unpredictability of our neighbor and about the awkwardness of this large Santa standing in a house that had not one other Christmas decoration to keep it company. I said optimistically, “Maybe he will look less out of place when we have our tree up.” And then added on hopefully, “Or maybe he can be an outdoor decoration?”
The best thing about this gift was the jump scare it caused my unaware fourteen-year-old when he walked into the room later.
Everyone in our house had different feelings about this gift, but one thing we all agreed on: this Santa is a little creepy.
My husband did not pass up the opportunity to take it to work with him and take turns placing it in each staff member’s office so that it would be standing right in front of them the second they opened their door.
I was trying to figure out why the creepiness of this Santa was unanimously agreed upon — I think it is just a little too realistic looking. When something looks like it is trying to be one thing, but it’s not quite that thing, there is just something off about it. The stuff of horror movies usually includes something that is almost human, but not quite: zombies, werewolves, dolls coming to life, vampires, etc. When something appears to be human at first glance but then is discovered to be a deception, our skin crawls. The statue looks either too realistic, or not realistic enough. There is nothing cartoony or silly about it. His face looks like a real person, and his stature is normal besides being an old man who is the height of a ten-year-old girl.
As the adage goes, appearances can be deceiving …
Jesus warns that many look-alikes will come in his name, replicas trying to pass themselves off as the true thing. He says, “See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in my name, saying ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many” (Mk 13:5–6). They will even be able to perform signs and wonders to deceive (Mk 13:22). These passages of scripture can cause me to worry: what if I don’t recognize Jesus when he returns? What if I am misled by one of the false messiahs, or what if I take the real Jesus to be a false messiah? On top of that, he is coming at an hour we do not expect (Mt 24:44). We know that it will be impossible to miss from Revelation 1:7, which says “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (see also Mk 13:26). But what if I’m not in my right mind? What if I get confused? What if I confuse the real Jesus for a fake?
He says to be ready, but how can we be ready for something that we can’t predict and can’t even imagine? These questions put all of the pressure on our own logic and intelligence, which are not always reliable. I start to forget that what sets Jesus apart from any of the false things is that he knows me.
Have you ever been away from someone for so long that you start to have trouble imagining their face? Or maybe a family member has died, and you worry that you’ll forget what they look like. For the friends or family members who we haven’t seen in a while, the second I see them and give them a hug, I know them. They might be unrecognizable at first glance, but they don’t remain a mystery for long.
There is so much more to a person than their outward appearance. Sure, someone might be able to alter a photo to look like someone, or AI might be able to imitate people’s voices. But when you are in the room with someone, it is impossible to deceive a family member or someone who knows that person. There is the way that person moves, the inflection in their voice, their facial expressions, and, most impossible to imitate, their soul that is uniquely theirs. In the same way a little child knows when it is being held by its mother and not another, we know our Lord.
In college we sang a song in the choir called “Thou Shalt Know Him.” When I start to doubt whether I will recognize my Savior and best friend who I pray to everyday and who knows the number of hairs on my head, I lean on these lyrics for comfort:
Thou shalt know him when he comes,
Not by any din of drums,
Nor his manners, nor his airs,
Nor by any thing he wears.Thou shalt know him when he comes,
Not by a crown nor by a gown,
But his coming known shall be,
By the holy harmony
Which his coming makes in thee.
Thou shalt know him when he comes.
Jesus is not one thing dressed up as another. In fact, he came into the world as a baby with no disguise, just a swaddling cloth. And he left the world in the same way, stripped of his clothing and his dignity, his corpse was wrapped again in a swaddling cloth and laid in a tomb. Throughout his life, people tried to force different identities and disguises on him: they wanted to dress him in armor to overthrow enemies, they wanted to dress him in robes and prayer tassels to be the holiest priest, and they wanted to dress him in royal robes and a crown. All of these roles he did fulfill, but in a kingdom that does not require dressing up in fancy garb. He himself, with nothing but righteousness to clothe him, is our prophet, priest, and king. Unlike the creepy Santa, he is the real deal. And we know him because he knows each one of us and calls us by name.
