Santa?

Santa?

Can that be you?

So many images and words and songs and pictures and movies and videos and...well, what next?  Holograms?  So many times we have seen Santa.  In the malls.  On the streets, ringing bells, on TV, in the movies...

For three years at another job, I played Santa for a few hours each year.  I thought to myself, "Of course these kids are being nice, if they're not, Santa's bringing the coal!"  Maybe I was wrong.  Some of the children would timidly walk up to me, to afraid to sit on my lap, for whatever reason, almost afraid to talk to me.  And I would ask, "What do you want for Christmas?".

I will always remember the one little girl who said, "I would like you to bring my sister a doll, because that's what she wants!"  Quietly she spoke, earnestly and with conviction.  That's what she really wanted for Christmas.

Who am I, in my humility before God and Jesus Christ, to say or do anything?  I remember I asked her again, "What do you want for Christmas?"  If I remember correctly, she smiled and said nothing, slipped off my lap and ran away.

So, every time that I think about what I want for Christmas...I think about that little girl...I want the best for those who have been my confidants, my cohorts, my . . . friends.

This Christmas I will not be alone.  I will be with what is left of my family, my mother, my father, my oldest brother are gone.  I have one brother, whom I love very much and his family.  I will spend THIS Christmas with family. 

I will spend THIS Christmas with My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And the spirit of Santa lives on...whether you can give a gift or not, if you give of yourself, you have given a Christmas present.