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You better watch out. You better not cry. . . .

It’s a fun and silly song we sing to and with the children and grandchildren. I think its primary purpose is to try and keep the kids in check as the excitement builds in the Christmas season. Desperate parents and grandparents will tell the kids almost anything as the final grind of Christmas preparations continues.

The song tells us Santa is always watching. He sees when we are sleeping and awake, when doing good, or being bad. The idea, I suppose, is that good behavior is rewarded. The song doesn’t say what happens if you’re bad or if you’re good, but Santa knows, so watch yourself.

Some children have been told they’d get a lump of coal if they were bad. The origin of this idea is hard to track. Some say Holland in the 1600s, some tie it to Italy, and others to the Charles Dickens story of Ebenezer Scrooge.

The right message?

All of this got me thinking about a song some of us sang as small children at church. “Oh be careful little eyes what you see, Oh be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above is looking down with love. Oh be careful little eyes what you see.”

The song has many verses urging children to be careful with hands, feet, ears, and hearts, and all for the same reason. God is looking down on us all the time. It’s a sweet melody, but all these years later I’m wondering if the song taught us the right message.

It’s true that the Scriptures are filled with passages that say God is looking down from Heaven. Psalm 33 says as much and that he sees our deeds. The psalm says his eyes are on those who fear him and hope in his steadfast love. Of course, we who have studied the Scriptures well speak of “fear” in the category of awe and respect more than terror, though we also understand what we’ve read about the power of God in many Bible passages. Still, I think the big idea is that God loves us incredibly. Jesus welcomed and embraced the little children. He didn’t terrorize them.

Vigilant

The Santa myth is fun. We certainly need to be more cautious about what we teach our children and grandchildren about God. It is critical that they understand God’s overwhelming love for them. We want to celebrate the baby Jesus as God’s love gift that changes everything.

All of these thoughts were stimulated by a verse in 2 John where believers are cautioned to watch themselves. The verse comes in the context of warning us about false doctrines. We must be vigilant to study God’s Word so we don’t accept a weakened doctrine of Jesus.

This Christmas and every day our focus must be on receiving God’s love gift of a Savior and our role in proclaiming his love far and wide by our words and our actions. As we do this there will be greater acceptance of the gospel and far less temptation to give in to false doctrine.