Works!

December 26th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

A few years ago, an enterprising writer for The Atlantic, Philip Bump, decided to tackle a laborious task. Does Santa really work hard?

I decided to figure out how many, how big a task Mr. Claus faces as he races west across the face of the globe, staying ahead of the sun. And I did. Or, anyway, I came up with a pretty solid estimate.”

Spoiler: He does work hard.

Assuming, of course, that he exists and that on Christmas Eve he canters around the globe (or his reindeer do) distributing presents to kids down chimneys. Our man, Mr. Bump, also assumed, rightly or wrongly, that Santa was generous only to “Christian” children.

That in itself is problematic. What exactly counts as “Christian”? And do all “Christians” celebrate Christmas? Not to mention non-Christians who do.

Thanks to the CIA, we can readily determine populations by age and religion, and, by combining the two measures, roughly approximate the number of Christians for any given age group. (For the purposes of our experiment, people 14-and-under receive presents from Santa.)”

These Christian-kids-under-14 statistics were plotted on the globe.

There are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world who celebrate Christmas on December 25th. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That’s about 365,000 kids a minute; about 6,100 a second. Totally doable.”

Time zones are a problem, of course. France (and its protectorates), for instance, has citizens in twelve time zones. Where would Mr. Bump allocate its 12 million Christian-kids-under-14? Or the 62 million of the same brats in the USofA and its four continental time zones? So, yes, some guesswork was involved.

The other worrying factor for Santa—actually, relieving factor—is that 11.5 million Eastern Orthodox Christian-kids-under-14 celebrate Christmas on January 7. So Santa needs to work again on January 6, but at the leisurely pace of 800,000 Christian-kids-under-14 per hour, slacking at 225 Christian-kids-under-14 per second.

Sounds tough, but Santa actually has more than 24 hours on any given night, apparently, since in the wintered countries, darkness exists for more than 10 hours a day, and if he is going in the right direction, he can be continuously in the dark, delivering his goodies unnoticed.

Over half a billion kids in the span of one night, all while distracting the experts at NORAD with gallivanting decoys. If anyone has ever deserved sainthood, it’s Nick.”

Hard work is admirable. In fact, the Scriptures, are chockfull of references to work—“good works.” In fact, pretty much every chapter of the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) talks about “good works.”

Charge them … to do good works,
to be rich in good works, to be generous, sharing.
1 Timothy 6:17–18

Every [text of] Scripture [is] God-breathed and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
so that that the person of God may be capable,
fully equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16–17

Remind them to be subject to rulers, authorities,
to obey, to be ready for every good work.
Titus 3:1

Children of God are to be model “good-work”-ers, …

… in all things showing yourself to be an example of good works.
Titus 2:7

Indeed, it is for “good works” that Jesus Christ saved his people:

[He] gave Himself for us so that He may redeem us from all lawlessness
and purify for Himself a people for His very own,
zealous for good works.
Titus 2:14

Maybe not as laborious as Santa’s undertakings, but worthy nonetheless: “good works” in the sight of God!

SOURCE:
The Atlantic