A Child's Wonder

"Daddy," she said, her eyes full of tears, "will you
talk to me and quiet my fears?" Those bad boys at
school are spreading a lie 'bout the impossibility of
reindeer that fly. There's no Santa Claus, they say
with a grin, there's not one now and never has been.

How can one man take all those toys to thousands of
girls and boys? But I told them daddy, that they were
not right, that I would come home and find out
tonight. Mama said wait until you get home. Please
tell me now that I was not wrong."

Her daddy looked at her questioning face and puffed
his pipe while his frantic mind raced. He had put
this thing off as long as he could, he had to think
fast and it better be good. Whispering a prayer, he
began with a smile, "Well climb on my lap, dear, let's
talk a while."

"Remember at church how we learned to pray, asking God
to take care of us each day? And you know how we say
grace before each meal? To this same God whom we know
to be real. Though we never see Him, we know He is
there watching his children with such loving care."

"God started Christmas a long time ago when He gave us
His son to love and to know. A spirit of giving came
with that birth, and God's generosity filled the
whole earth. Man had to name this spirit of giving
just as He names all things that are living."

"The name Santa Claus came to someone's mind probably
the best name of any to find. There is, you can see,
and I think it quite clear, truly a Santa who visits
each year. A spirit like God, whom we never see he
enters the hearts of your mother and me."

Each year at Christmas for one special night we become
him and make everything right. But the REAL spirit of
Christmas is in you and in me, and I hope you are old
enough now to see that as we believe and continue to
give, our friend Santa Claus will continue to live."

[ Author Unknown -- from Carolyn ]