I love this scene from the movie The Santa Clause. Scott Calvin has just gotten to the North Pole after accidently filling in for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. He is wandering around this incredible building filled with colorful toys, sweet elves, and amazing inventions. But in spite of what he can see right in front of him, he doesn’t actually want to believe it is happening. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, so he throws all the evidence he actually does have right out the window. It reminds me of the interaction of Jesus with his disciple Thomas. After Jesus had died, Thomas keeps hearing account after account that Jesus is actually alive again, well, and appearing to people all over the area, but Thomas refuses to believe that it is true. He says unless he can see Jesus for himself, he won’t believe. In the movie, Scott is one step farther then that. He doesn’t believe whether he can see it or not. One of the elves actually explains to him, that belief has nothing to do with proof, visual or otherwise. You either believe something or you don’t. No amount of visual or other evidence should change that. If it does, you didn’t truly believe it to begin with.
The scene is such a great analogy for faith. Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, belief not based on proof. Far too often, we want to act like everything in the world can be perfectly explained and can be tested and proven in the way we want to see it. We act like if something takes a step of faith, it can’t possibly be true. We tend to act like faith is a childish thing you need to grow out of, like it’s not actually real. As adults we like to act like if something cannot specifically be seen with our eyes or proven in front of us, it can’t possibly be real. Like faith is a game that is good for nothing.
As much as we ignore it and degrade it, faith is a mighty ability for even adults. We use it so much- when we take a job that has no current positions for advancement or opportunities for moving up, but we still believe we can learn and work our way up the ladder. When a couple has a little boy who is only 4 and on the shorter side, but they are convinced he is going to be a great NBA basketball player when he grows up- whether they can see it now or not. When a family member gets sick with a horrible disease and we encourage them on, “hang in there, you can do this,” even if the labs and tests come back revealing the opposite. We use hope daily, but we refuse to acknowledge its prevalence or its power. And if we don’t use it well, we will never see the full ability it has. So is faith really pointless? Do you even believe the things you do see? Or are you like Scott Calvin- insistently denying to believe the things that can be known and the things that cannot?
The Bible says, “Faith is the substance of the things we hope for. The evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) Being able to hope for something is being able to see it. To see into the future and imagine life a way different then it actually is is a powerful motivator- it can allow you to eventually change the course of history if you can hold onto your faith rather then your circumstances. The tricky thing about seeing faith actually work is that it requires you to believe before it will work. The movie actually shows a great example of this- Scott’s son is given a snow globe that when you shake it, if you believe, you will see a reindeer and sleigh float across the ball. If you don’t believe, you don’t see anything but snow. Faith in God is like this as well- if you believe in Him, you can see amazing evidence of who He is, how He works, and all He can do. But you have to believe before you can see the evidence.
This is actually really common in the world, we just don’t always think of things this way. I always use the example of electrons. I have never seen an electron. Someone, somewhere had a machine and visibly saw electrons, but I have not. However, I took an entire class in college about the things that happen because of electrons. Theoretically, I could have chosen not to believe in something that I didn’t see, in which case, even seeing the evidence supporting it wouldn’t have mattered. But it took that measure of faith- of me believing something the proof someone else had seen, before I could actually see and understand all the evidence that suggests they exist.
I love some Christmas movies about Santa Claus or the north pole- not because of the topics (though I am often a kid at heart), but because they always speak to me about hope and faith. In the Bible, Jesus found his disciple Thomas after he doubted him. “Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Then Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:27-28).
Just like in the clip above- we shouldn’t need to see proof of Jesus to believe in Him and what he has done- we either believe or not. But the more amazing thing about faith in God is He willingly gives proof to us, and doesn’t require us to blindly believe in Him, but willingly shows us who he is, if we take that first step to let him. He willingly came all the way to earth to make his presence a known proof. Willingly died to give us the freedom to be able to know who he is now. And those who trust in that are blessed.