But how about the Great Pumpkin?

How did you hear the “Truth” about Santa Claus?  I never got the Santa talk, because it had been worked out when I found out there was no Easter bunny.  (I automatically assumed that if there was no Bunny, there was no Santa.  It did not occur to me that that meant there was no Jesus.  I’m not sure why.)  I was devastated; I cried and cried.  It did not occur to me that I wouldn’t get an Easter basket.  But the Bunny was more important.

Trying to analyze this, I wonder if I wanted to hold on to the Easter Bunny because giving him (I always saw the Bunny as male) up meant giving up magic and the idea that something that didn’t make sense if I thought about it was really true.

Well, this weekend, I had another Easter Bunny experience.  Have you ever tried to pin a pastor or theologian down about the truth of the Bible?  They may say that it is divinely inspired or that we have to allow for cultural differences.  It’s kind of like the way parents hedge when they don’t think a child is ready to know the truth about Santa.

But this weekend, I was told.  “It’s all made up.”  It was a churchlady bull session at a retreat.  We were all pretty much agreed that we didn’t believe in creationism.  The New Testament was trickier.  I said that I didn’t have any problem with the virgin birth or the star of Bethlehem.  One of my friends, who knows a lot more than I do, said very seriously, “It’s all made up.”  I felt like I was back in second grade talking about the Easter Bunny with my best friend Lorraine.  “But the Resurrection . . .” (“You just mean the Bunnies in the stores aren’t real, don’t you?  I know that.”)  She repeated, “It’s all made up.  The stories are just details.  It’s what they represent that’s important.”  I might have disagreed.  But somehow I knew that as much as I didn’t like it, she was right.

I didn’t burst into tears or run out of the room.  I just sat there.  “But God is real,” she said.

That was kind of like “Santa Claus is the spirit of giving.”  Yeah, right.

“I’ll have to think about that,” I said.

So I’ve been thinking about it.  My friend and the new theologians and the priests who agree with them are probably right.  I don’t like it, but I have decided to make it my opinion, if not my belief.

I still got Easter baskets and Christmas presents.  I still have God.  But doesn’t that sound a bit wistful?