Santa Claus, Watercolors, and God

We were living in Mobile when I was five years old.  It was getting close to Christmas and I was excited.  My Christmas list was done.  I knew what I wanted Santa Claus to bring me and I just couldn’t wait.  And then Mama gave me the news.  She thought I would be thrilled.  I wasn’t.  She said that we were going to Montgomery to spend Christmas with my grandmother.  What?!  I need to be at home for Christmas!  This is terrible!! Santa Claus knows I live here, but he will never find me in Montgomery!!  But I didn’t say any of that.  I just cried.  And cried.  Mama was mystified.  I ordinarily loved going to my grandmother’s for any reason at all.  I would even invent reasons that I needed to go visit her.  But not now!  Not at Christmas.  

I finally told Mama why I didn’t want to go.  She told me that it wouldn’t matter and that Santa would find me no matter where I was at Christmas.  I was less than convinced.  I decided that the safest thing I could do was leave him a note.  That way, if he showed up in Mobile, he would find the note, know I was in Montgomery, and just swing by my grandmother’s house to leave my loot. Seemed like a good plan to me.  So I got my brother to help me with the note.  I figured he had as much to gain from that note as I did.  If Santa couldn’t find me, then he certainly wouldn’t find my brother either.  Our note was to the point – We are at Mam-ma’s house and you can leave our presents there.  Love, Susan and David How could he not find us with those explicit directions?

So, off we went to Montgomery.  The note was taped to the mantel so Santa could not miss it when he plopped into our fireplace.  Things were looking up.  On Christmas Eve, I got my grandmother to help me with a second note for Santa.  It was also pretty much to the point and went something like Susan and David are here. You are in the right house now. I got an early start on my note-writing obsession.

Santa found us!  On Christmas morning I was thrilled.  The one thing I wanted more than anything was a giant watercolor set.  It had seventy-two colors and lots of brushes and paper.  The box was about the size of a Monopoly game and it had a hinged lid.  I painted like crazy.  I even touched up a couple of places on the wall at my grandmother’s house.  I distinctly remember that nobody appreciated it.  

Sometimes I think we have a tendency to treat God like Santa Claus.  Tell him what you want and wait for him to bring it.  We know better.  But they do have something in common.  Just like Santa, God always knows where his children are.  We don’t have to leave him notes so he can find us, either.  He is always there – He sees you when you’re sleeping and He knows when you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been good or bad.  He knows how we handle everything life throws at us – and He knows that we sometimes pout.  And He loves us.  Completely and unconditionally.  

I am at the Cancer Center again.  Waiting.  Waiting. Waiting.  Today I see the doctor and next week I have a Herceptin treatment.  While I wait, I am sure that God is watching over me.  He has been with me every step of this journey and has been fighting even when I can’t.  He will do that for you, too.  You don’t need a medical crisis or another type of emergency or a catastrophe.  He will be right with you in the “ordinary” as well as the stressful.  Ask Him.  That’s all it takes.  He WANTS to be there and do good things for you!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us – Ephesians 3:20