“Should we and do we pray to God and Christ as Santa Claus?” by Andrew J. Schatkin

“Should we and do we pray to God and Christ as Santa Claus?” by Andrew J. Schatkin

Many people may pray to god to ask for things or see and conceive of him as a giver or gifts and proceed when they pray to ask god for things much as a child has not only the expectation that his parents are the source of what they may want and what they ask for but see their parents solely in the role of dispensing the good things they want and need. So for many god is the old man with the beard in the sky, the Santa Claus who when we pray we hope will give us what we want and may request. This is an incorrect understanding of not only god but prayer. Our relationship to Christ and to god is not asking and getting something out of him but knowing and being known in a relationship based on mutual love. A relationship of mutual lover cannot be based on what you get for Christmas but rather what you give for Christmas. Prayer is not seeking to gain and get from some sort of great giver in the sky. Love and god and Christ are love and nothing more, and love has no basis in what you want or can extract from god in prayer, but being known and knowing the person and love of Christ. Prayer is not about asking and begging for more, but about giving in a relationship of love, whereby in union and in transformation with Christ we are enabled to be and become the elevated person we have the potential to become. Prayer is the route and mode to growth in Christ and in prayer we grow to the level we can attain but without prayer we become less and are diminished and shrink.