BETWEEN THE LINES: GRACE, SANTA CLAUS BRING GIFT OF CHRISTMAS LOVE

"Grace comes free of charge to people who don't deserve it."

-- Phillip Yancey in "What's So Amazing about Grace?"

For days, I tried to write a column from ideas that would never come together. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make sense of Santa Claus, Christmas gift-giving and the birth of Christ in 15 inches of type.

Like heavy, wet snowflakes, the ideas floated across my head but vanished when I tried to form words.

While struggling with how to correlate my ideas, I came across a quote by Phillip Yancey. In one quick flash everything made sense.

Yancey's book is about grace in a religious sense, but it seemed to make my ideas -- both religious and secular -- fit together appropriately.

Grace: It's the definition of Christmas spirit in all aspects of the holiday.

We give gifts to family and friends at this time of year not because they are necessarily deserving but because they aren't.

Santa Claus himself brings gifts through grace -- everything is undeserved but relished all the same.

Sure, in an age of skepticism and scam, Santa Claus sounds too good to be true.

But the editor of the Chicago Sun years ago confirmed that Santa truly exists when he replied to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon.

The letter answers the question Is Santa Clause real: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. ... No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

In that spirit of gladness and joy, Santa visited my home a little early this year.

The story actually begins earlier this month when I moved into a house. I was lacking one major appliance -- a refrigerator -- and the cash to buy it. Knowing I could only afford a used one at best, my stepmother initiated a plan to buy one for me.

It was one housewarming gift I certainly didn't expect. And is a perfect example of grace in action.

An undeserved gift at best, the refrigerator was something I wouldn't have expected nor requested. But my family loved me enough to provide something just because -- no other reason needed.

I discovered another example of grace last week watching Cape Girardeau children as Toybox Santas delivered their gifts.

An entire community gave gracefully. Cape Girardeau residents donated thousands of toys so that needy children would know a merry Christmas.

These people didn't know the children by name -- so they couldn't deem them worthy or unworthy of the gifts -- and they didn't have to. They just knew that every child deserved the joy and delight that only a gift from Santa can bring.

How else can we teach our children about love, grace and acceptance than by our example?

When you think about it, Santa Claus is really a person who brings grace, not just gifts. He delivers toys to children the world over -- children who have been both good and bad, whose actions don't always deserve reward. But Santa comes anyway.

Thousands of years ago, a baby born in Bethlehem came to bring grace to the world. He spent his life dispensing grace and acceptance to both the deserving and undesirable.

Yancey says grace comes to those who least expect it and certainly don't deserve it.

That list certainly includes me.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor for the Southeast Missourian.