THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD!

By John Maerz BA LMT

     If you can, imagine waking up and it’s December 25^th and you’re five years old. You dart out from your bedroom into the main part of the house and you find a decorated tree standing guard over a plethora of wrapped packages beneath it. You’re so excited you can barely contain yourself. You dive into the pile foraging through to find packages with your name on them. You think about the jolly fat man with a white beard who kept track of you all year. They say he keeps track of everyone. He always knows whether you’re naughty or nice. You smile to yourself because you know you’ve been good all year. You feel that you have earned what’s under tree. You think about your friends living at other houses and you feel amazed and wonder how the fat man can get to every house in one night. You feel bad for Ricky, the little boy down the block that Mommy won’t let you play with because she says he doesn’t behave himself all through the year like you do. You just know that he’s going to get lumps of coal in the stocking he put up on his mantle. It’s okay though, because when you go around the block to play with him, where Mommy can’t see, you know that you can share your toys with him so he won’t feel so bad. A big smile washes across your face as you remember the presents and dive in.

     Seasons pass. You’re eight years old now. It’s December 25^th again and you race out of your bedroom. You’ve been getting up earlier each year that passes. This year something is different though. As you bolt into the main part of the house you find Daddy putting ornaments on the tree. This is very puzzling. You look across the room and you see Mommy wrapping packages on the dining room table. Your empty stocking is lying next to the newly wrapped, and some not yet wrapped, packages. Something is wrong here. What happen to the jolly fat man with the white beard? Why is Daddy decorating the tree and mommy wrapping packages? Who wraps their packages? What about all your friends? Did the jolly fat man just not make it to your house this year? Did he forget me? Mommy and Daddy quickly glance at each other and ask you to come over and sit on the couch. They begin to talk with you. The smile has long since vanished from your face. You learn that there is no jolly fat man with a white beard who keeps track of everyone’s behavior and who makes it to everyone’s house in one night. You hear that there was such a person many years ago but that he did what he did in a very small town with very few people so he was able to get to everyone. Your heart sinks. Why did Mommy and Daddy tell you that story so many seasons ago? Why did they lie to you? You’re so confused.

     Many years have passed. You’re much older now. You find yourself in a church. You’re listening to a mass and the priest is telling you about how it is in this world. He says that there is a wise old man with a white beard who sits on a throne in the heavens. He is so omniscient that he knows what is happening to every blade of grass. He is so all powerful that he can move mountains and be in many places at the same time. He is joyful and extremely generous. He promises us that if we are good all our lives we will have the present of eternal happiness. He talks about those who are not good and that they will go somewhere where there is lots of burning coal. Then it hits you. Wait a minute. Where have I heard this story before?