It’s a hard job, you know. When you picture Santa in your mind, it seems like such a fun job. After all, everyone loves you; well almost everyone. A Santa gets to bring such joy to the faces of the Christmas revelers as the snow flies in December. The wind swirls through the frosty air while carolers sing their magical prose and Santa waves and heartily laughs, “Ho, ho, ho.” Santa is the star of the Christmas parade, his throne the destination of kids in every glittery mall. I think of Santa as a huge sponge, he gets to soak up all the love the little kids bestow on him, he gets to listen to each child’s funny stories, their silly requests and feel the tugs of their little hands on his beard. It’s a real Norman Rockwell image. It’s magical. Santa gets to have a million plates of cookies of every shape and flavor on a single night, he gets to see all the beaches of the world and the mountains and canyons of this big blue marble as he flies through the night on Christmas Eve. But because I know Santa, actually one of his helpers, I realized that the sponge that Santa is, also carries the heavy burdens of this world. Santa comes home after a night filled with requests and he’s tired and he’s cold. His arms and back get sore from lifting 400 kids onto his lap. He sits and listens to children ask for presents and has to look into the sad eyes of their parents and he realizes that child is not going to have that treasured toy under her tree this year. He watches from behind the beard and glasses and sometimes sees moms and dads talk ugly to their children, he sometimes sees a kid get smacked in the head. It hurts his heart to go to the nursing homes and see residents for whom Christmas is just another day because no one will come to visit them. The lyrics of the song, “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” says “he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows if you’re awake”, but I’ve just realized that Santa sees us too and it burdens him. Although Santa sees all these things, he still has incredible hope. Santa gets excited when he goes to a happy celebration party at a nursing home where families do visit and local heroes come and sing Christmas songs and bring presents to these blessed old souls. It’s magic to him when a child tells him that she loves him. He gets inspired when he looks in a child’s eye and knows he truly believes because in a dark world, the ability to believe in things that are sometimes unbelievable is so important. He gets tickled when a puppy dog licks his gloved hand and wags his tail. It humbles him when he takes communion on Christmas Eve in his red suit. As the man behind the beard finishes out this Christmas Season here in Prestonsburg tonight on the fire truck, I am so very thankful I get to be Mrs. Claus even though I don’t wear the costume. I treasure the times I help get him ready to go out and the times we’ve driven through restaurant drive throughs and hear the worker’s excitement as they realize that “Santa is in the house”. Merry Christmas from Don and Kaye Willis, know that we love you all so much!
No comments:
Post a Comment