December 21 – “Santa Claus loves Jesus”

Yesterday I was invited to my very first non-grandfatherly gig as none other than Santa Claus.  The historical Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was having their annual Christmas choir program led by the Galveston Heritage Choir.  The church itself is home to one of the two existing pipe organs of its type in the world (Don’t ask me for any more specifics.  I was sufficiently awed at that, so the make and model certainly escape me now).  The other one is at the Smithsonian museum, so it must be a big deal.

How did I get involved in a place like that?  The lady who was in charge of the choir and who put the whole thing on, Izola Collins, is in our water exercise class.  The instructor was teasing me about my “Santa beard” at one of the sessions.  She said it was OK to grow the beard to play Santa, but I didn’t have her permission to grow the belly.  Izola heard the interchange and invited me, jokingly, to come be Santa at the production.  She was quite surprised when I agreed right on the spot. 

Back to the performance.  The choir was really good.  Lots of very strong voices.  They sang some familiar Christmas songs as well as some arrangements of Negro spirituals that were powerful.  We noticed right away, though that not a single person in attendance was under ten years old.  In fact the youngest was probably twenty-something.  There were lots of children there though.  Just much older ones.

After the choir part of the program was complete, Izola thanked everyone for coming, and then announced that she had a surprise for them all (she hadn’t even told her pastor that I was coming).  She called for me to come on in.  Now she hadn’t asked me to do anything in particular (“Just do Santa things” was her admonition).  So I brought along a bag full of candy canes taped to copies of the poem about the candy cane that links it to Jesus (Held one way it’s a shepherd staff and the other it’s a “J” for Jesus, etc.).  As I walked down the center aisle to the choir’s rendition of Jingle Bells, I handed out handfuls and asked people to pass them around.  And when I reached the front I did something I have always wanted to see a Santa do in these Santa appearances, I took off my Santa hat and knelt at the altar and prayed.  Then I left the room waving and saying Merry Christmas.  It was a very short appearance, but it was really fun to do.

Chris told me after I left that she introduced me as the fire department chaplain, so I guess I’d better let the chief know.  I try to inform him when I represent the department.  Better to be up front about those sort of things.  I did get one interesting comment from Izola’s son after everything was over.  He said, “That was the most anointed appearance of Santa that I’ve ever experienced.”  I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but again I must say, it was really fun.  Thanks for the invitation Mrs. Izola.  Ho, Ho, Ho.

1 Peter 2:17 says, “Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.”

Father, thank you for the opportunity to show that even Santa loves Jesus.  Amen.