Why the “boy dying in Santa’s arms” story is important, whether or not it’s true

You’ve heard the horribly sad story: a Knoxville, Tennessee hospital called a man who played Santa Claus and told him to hurry to the room of a dying five year old little boy .  

“There’s no way you can miss Christmas,” he told the boy.  “Why, you’re my Number One elf!’ ”

The little boy, so weak he could barely open Santa’s gift, said, “They say I’m gonna die. How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?’”

“When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s Number One elf,” Santa said.  “And I know they’ll let you in.’ ”

“Santa, can you help me?” the boy asked.  Santa hugged him right as the little boy died.

The tragic story went viral, but people quickly questioned the story’s veracity.  The Knoxville News Sentinel withdrew the story saying they couldn’t confirm the story.  Another news source said they did confirm it, but — due to the sensitivity of the situation — chose not to identify the grieving family.

This is not a post about whether the Santa actor, Eric Schmitt-Matze, was telling the truth.  More interesting, to me, was the intense reaction from so many people — when they heard the original story and when they heard the possibility of it being all made up.  On my own Facebook post, a man wrote:

“I have to believe this happened, no one is that evil and manipulative. Maybe I wear the rose colored glasses but I refuse to let this story be fake. We need this story. If you do not believe in this story keep it to yourself.”

We need this story?

“He does need this story. We all do,” my pastor Paul Joiner said when I told him about the comment. “It’s the story of someone greater entering into the most vulnerable moment (death) and providing comfort. The need for that story is burned into our hearts after the fall.”

And what is the story we long to know?

That, at the point of death, we will be lovingly guided from here to there, because God gave us the perfect gift.  We didn’t deserve the gift of eternal life, and in fact, deserved a lot worse than a lump of coal.  Instead of looking at us in our sin and putting us away, God was overcome with love for us. He didn’t hold our wrongdoings against us. Instead, at great cost, He gave us a way to be forgiven and reenter into communion with Him. That gift was His son.  Because of this gift, death doesn’t have the final victory — whether you have the distinction of being someone important (“Santa’s number one elf”) or someone whom no one even visits in the nursing home anymore.

Let this story from Knoxville — of an unbelievably caring and brave man caring for a vulnerable person in death — be a gentle reminder that there is a much better story than the “you better watch out, you better not cry” mantra that will pass through our lips at some point this Christmas season.

“The need for that story is burned into our hearts after the fall,” my pastor wrote.  “We just need it to be true.”

Then, he added, “And, thankfully, it is.”