Long Cold Journey

 I love Spring.  New life is everywhere.  The sunshine creates thousands of shades of green, millions of different colors decorating the landscape, and in Alabama temperature changes that baffle the mind.  In the mornings you need heat and clothes that keep you warm and are removable because afternoon you need an air-conditioner and shed clothing.

Night times are marvelous with clear skies and billions of stars that remind us how insignificant we seem in this universe God created.  The Bible reminds us that humanity is His greatest creation and all that He created was for us.

One beautiful spring Saturday, my son Aaron and I decided to make a road trip.  Living in Linden, Alabama we were a hundred miles from Sugar Ridge my home where I grew up and where I am now retired.  Aaron has a Jeep Wrangler, and we removed the hard top and doors and started to make the trip just to check on the house and property.

I went into the house and got me a jacket.  It was a good sun shining morning and Aaron questioned my getting my leather jacket.  I reminded him that it might turn cold before we returned to Linden.  He reluctantly got him a jacket, a down one I might add. 

Aaron had a friend that had testicle cancer and had lost all his hair due to treatments.  Aaron decided to shave his head to encourage his friend.  He asked me to shave it, and I did.  I add this information because it is pertinent to our adventure.

The journey was one that helps bring a father-son relationship a cherished one.  Aaron had the best time that day.  My hair was blowing in the wind while Aaron's bald head was getting a tan.  It was exhilarating viewing the spring unfolding its beauty.  It was fantastic watching from the jeep.  We took our time and took in every special moment.

The Spring began sinking into the western horizon.  Sunsets are gorgeous on Sugar Ridge.  We started our one-hundred-mile journey back to Linden.  My leather jacket looks great but lacks any warm thermal qualities.  I carried mostly for blocking the wind.  Aaron started home in his short sleeves.  We went through Clanton the county set of Chilton County got us some grub from Sonic as darkness dominated the skies.  The air began to cool.

Traveling down Alabama Highway 22, it got cold and colder.  Aaron finally put on his jacket and turned the Jeep's heater to high.  On 22, we discovered all the cold spots and the colder spot that trees had shaded during the day.  Warm spots we few and far between.  My leather jacket did not warm me.

With the temperature steady falling, I begged Aaron to stop, and I would use political signs to make us doors for the jeep.  It was election year and there was plenty if signs.  He pulled his jacket over his bald head, I shivered, and the Jeep began a refrigerator.  When we reached Selma, we stopped at a redlight and the heat from the pavement temporally gave us some warmth.  

I don't know if the cold froze Aaron's brain, but he would not stop.  Outside Selma we were halfway to Linden.  We could not feel the heater any longer.  Aaron was driving so his left leg was exposed the cold from the missing door.  As passenger I my right leg was freezing.  He slowed the Jeep hoping it would reduce the and we could feel the heater.  It did not good.  Two icicles finally arrived in Linden to a warm house.  Both of us still had cold legs.

We laugh at our frozen escapade now.  It was a journey that I will always cherish mostly because I made this wonderful memory with my teenage son.  

Thanks, Aaron, for making life fun and unforgettable.

Thank you, God, for your wonderful creation and unpredictable Alabama weather.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!  Psalm 8 KJV

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22 KJV

THAZ YOU SANTA CLAUS?

 

I found out at an early age that Santa Claus was a mythical person based on a real person and that Jesus Christ was the root of Christmas.  Santa Claus was and remains prominent during the Christmas season.  He is real to many boys and girls around the world.  I saw a Hispanic family in Montevallo on Wednesday.  A little boy scrambled from a SUV.  Dressed in Santa Claus pajamas, I said, “Someone is excited about Santa Claus.”  His mom and dad had smiles as wide as Texas.  I said, “Merry Christmas,” They did not speak English and I should have said, Felez Navidad.”

 

My first year out of high school I worked at a metal molding plant.  I was a big for an eighteen-year-old and they convinced me to play Santa Claus.  As another famous Alabamian, Forrest Gump, would say, “All I got to say about that it was frightening.  The workforce was predominantly female.  While they sat on Santa’s knee, this young Christian boy heard things that would make a Corinthian Sailor blush.  And “that is all I got to say about that.

 

Every year for Christmas Local 50537 and management for the cement plant gave away 300 bicycles to needy families in central Alabama.  I was Santa Claus.  I met with children in a small program, and they would tell what they wanted.  At the end we presented the bicycles to them.  It was all I could do to hold back tears as these children hugged my neck and thanked me for the bicycles.

 

I played Santa Claus for my extended family.  One Christmas when my youngest son was about five or six, he sat in my lap and rubbed my arm.  I wore white gloves, but I think he recognized my arm.  It was fun as my son, nieces, and nephews talked with Santa and quizzed where was dad and uncle Bobby.  Oh, the tales told at Christmas.

 

I was Santa longer when I served as Director of Missions in Linden, Alabama.  At the request of the mayor and Chief of police, they asked if I would be the town, Santa.  It was fun especially riding the Fire Department Engine and waving at the crowds of people during “Chilly Fest” and the Christmas parade.  I would sit in the town Gazebo and the children would take pictures with Santa.

 

One parade, a woman running for a Congressional seat sat on my lap.  I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and she said to win Congressional Seat.  She is now the Honorable Terri Sewell in Washington.  Hundreds of babies sat on my lap as cameras took photographs.

 

I usually wore a beard and mustache that I purchased.  I distained the fake stuff that came with cheap Santa outfits.  I glued the mustache and beard to my face so when mischievous kids would pull Santa’s beard it appeared real.  One year I grew a beard and mustache along growing longer hair.  I was not snowy white so at the advice of the lady that cut my hair I went to Tuscaloosa to procure some dye.  Dressed in red and waiting to checkout, an attractive lady put her arm around me and said, “Santa, I want a keyless entry Lexus for Christmas.

 

Chilly Fest was a huge event with a chili cookoff, parade, fireworks, and such.  On the morning of the event my son Aaron and I were replacing a radiator in his Jeep Wrangler when my cell phone rang.  It was the Chief of police wanting to know if I had seen Santa.  The park for Chilly Fest was a block away.  Santa usually appeared the night of the parade, but folks were wondering where he was for the all-day event.

 

Quickly with the speed of Superman in a telephone booth, Santa appeared.  It was a cool overcast morning that suddenly dissipated, and a bright sun drove the clouds away.  Everyone wanted to see Santa.  I took time with everyone that wanted to talk with me.  It was fun.

Then it happened.  A little back boy sat with me and was convinced I was not the real Santa Claus.  He said I did not look like the real one.  I told him that I was the local Santa and that the “Big Man” could only be everywhere around the world on Christmas Eve.  He used local Santas to help.

 

Not to be undone, he asked me where my reindeer were.  I asked him did he see any snow.  Snow is rare in Alabama.  He said, “No.”  I reminded him that I had reindeer, not rain deer.  Then he was to know where my elves.  I told him they were incognito, which I said they were disguised as children with their Christmas caps pulled down over their pointed ears. 

 

“How did you get here and where is your sleigh?”  He did not let up.  I told him that since there was no snow, I had to use the elf mobile which I had hid.  Then I thought he had me.  He asked, “If you are the real Santa, what did you get me for Christmas last year?  I pondered the question for a moment and said, “toys.”

 

With a beautiful smile from a little boy, he yelled out loud, “YOU ARE THE REAL SANTA.”  He rounded up all his friends, and their friends.  For a few precious moments in time, I was experienced the miracle of Christmas, love, and wonderment. The children asked me some of the amazing questions.  On of my neighbors, a Hispanic girl, when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas said, “A bell from your sleigh.”  One again I had tears in my eyes.  She, her three sisters, and brother were rescued from under a bridge.  They were caught stealing food to eat.  My neighbor was their foster parent.

Merry Christmas everyone and remember Jesus.  But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”