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| SantaNiclaus@aol.com - EMAIL US IF YOU NEED US |
How many times in your life have you heard, "The Lord has His reasons for EVERYTHING!"?
Well, when my grandson Kieran died I was devastated! I couldn't even begin to imagine God's reasoning behind
letting THAT happen!
That was the first year I was going to be Santa. The store manager had asked me on Halloween night when I was standing
at the door, dressed like the Cat-in-the-Hat, passing out the Halloween candy. I had no idea what being Santa would
entail, but I remembered the times when we brought our sons to visit with Santa when they were little. And, of course,
I had my own memories of those special times with Santa from when I was a child, so I figured with the Lord's help I'd give
it a try.
We were supposed to go see our grandson that Thanksgiving in Jacksonville, FL and I was especially excited since I had purchased
a Santa suit right away and I could try it out on my very own grandson. Of course, Kieran was only five months old so
he wouldn't really understand, but it's just a "Grandfatherly thing".
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| KEIRAN |
Hearts in
our stomachs we went to bury our grandson. We spent a few days with our boys and their wives, and my mother, and before
we knew it Thanksgiving had passed and it was time to return home.
Oh God how I ached!
And so I didn't want
to go back to work. But my sweet wife, Teresa, reminded me that I was supposed to be Santa the next day at the store.
She gently reminded me, that for about two weeks there were signs were saying Santa was going to be there, in all the windows
and doors. So there'd be a LOT of children counting on me.
So, I said a prayer and asked Jesus to help me put my grandson behind me and go forward to the task
at hand. I asked Him to fill my mouth with the right things to say and my actions with the right things to do.
But I still harbored ill thoughts towards a God that would allow such a thing to happen to a little baby. I put on my suit and that made me feel better even though I had to paste on a
fake beard because I didn't have a beard at that time. Away I went to the
store. Once seated I started Ho Ho Hoing with as much zeal as I could muster under the circumstances and I rang my bells
like a crazed Salvation Army bell ringer. And the very first child who came to me told me, she knew I was the
real Santa because of the way I rang my bells and Ho Ho Hoed! She said she'd been to two malls and to several
stores where they had Santas and they just sat there and did nothing! I told her they were my helpers and I'd send them
an e-mail and tell them to "jolly it up a bit". But then she said, "Santa, I want to thank you for what you did for me for Christmas this year!" Well since it wasn't Christmas yet I was a little taken back but
I managed to say, "But sweetheart it hasn't even been Christmas yet! I haven't been around yet!" To
which she replied with the sincerity only a child can express, "I know Santa, but I also know that when you rang your
bells my little brother got his wings because he was born stillborn." That floored
me! Not only because my grandson had died and now I had TWO dead children to contemplate, but because Christmas and
Santa was just supposed to be fun and silly jolliness! It wasn't supposed to be like this!!! And then just as
if the Lord had parted the grey matter of my brain like He did the waters for Moses, I suddenly passed through! I passed
through the river of "supposed to be's"!
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Then, a week before Thanksgiving, we got the dreadful call.
Kieran had died! I was totally shocked! I came crashing down from a euphoria of joy and expectation - To gloom
and doom.-
- Surely the world was coming to an end!
It HAD to be! The Lord wouldn't take my only grandchild, my only grandson, unless the world was coming to an end!!
Right??? Wasn't it?
- OVER
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My
grandson wasn't "supposed" to die! I was "supposed" to have a lineage of grandeur! Christmas
was "supposed" to be just plain fun! And children were "supposed" to be forever happy and come to
Santa for toys! But all those "supposed to be's" were of my own imagining! What I wanted to believe.
And now they were gone from around me and I was standing on the path of reality. A shocking and terrifying reality! What was shocking and terrifying was that I realized that Kieran had only been loaned
to our family. He was loaned out to us like a library book full of new information that would only make sense after
it had been read and returned, and there was time to ponder what was in it. And the horrifying reality was that I had
been the target of God's awakening education! I had been insistent throughout my life that our family's "bloodlines" were
very important and that I felt a great lineage was to follow through my sons. I had been told the following many times
- "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." - Proverbs 16:18 And also,
"But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable
and vain." - Titus 3:9. But
I would not heed the warnings. I firmly believed that the Lord had a destined plan for my descendancy. And He
had given me sons! And then a grandson! And the whole world revolved around that grandson!
Then suddenly, as though for my ignorance,my grandson was gone!
My decendancy was gone! What an expensive lesson! But very effective! My family and I weren't so important
in the scheme of things after all!
However, there was a little girl sitting on my lap who
was! She had just lost
a little brother she'd been looking forward to playing with so much, and he was gone too! And Christmas was
only a happy time for her once more, now that Santa had rang his bells. And for her, her little brother could now receive
his wings. He could now fly off with the angels and she could let him go. She could once again just be a little
girl!
For me, it was the realization that
Santa could in fact play a bigger role than just a silly, fat, old man with white hair and whiskers! That as long as
Santa remembered he was a humble servant of the Lord, the Lord could use him to ease the hurts of some children while making
a lot of others happy. More importantly, the Lord let me see, in my mind's eye, my grandson Kieran , newly equipped
with his beautiful wings that would carry him off to be with the angels now that I was ready to let him go.
And all the "supposed to be's"
flew off with him.
Now I can live my life
day by day without the baggage that I carried around before and because I'm Santa 24/7 I can help ease the hurts and/or make
all my newly adopted grandchildren happy each and every day.
In every child I see Kieran and I make them happy for my Lord and Kieran.
That was the reason - at
least for me - why Kieran died. Everyone
else whose life he affected has to look to the Lord for the reason the Lord took him from them. But there was
a reason! To serve our Lord as
Santa – Servant of Jesus! - It's
going on 13 years since the Lord called me to be Santa
- SantaNiclaus@aol.com
- Santa for the North Metro Miracle League 2002 - 2007
- Santa for the 11 Alive (TV)/Salvation Army "Live
Canathon" 2001 - 2007
Member of: - Southeast Santas
- Santa The World Group
- Santa Claus Around
the World
- Royal Order of Santa Claus
- Santa Claus Registry
- IOS - International Order of Santa
- Palm
Tree Santas
- Attended "Discover Santa" the first ever International Santa Convention held in Branson, MO
July 2006
- I attended the IUSC - International University of Santa Claus - in 2003 and again in 2006
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