“Ellie said that he loved Christmas and used to play Santa every year...”
One of the most basic stories about the origin of Santa says he was a Christian named Nicholas, who gave gifts to the poor, and because of his Godly, charitable acts, he came to be known as Saint Nicholas. After his death, the truth of who he was, why he did what he did, and even how he did what he did came to be wrapped in fantastical myth and legend. Today, an extraordinary number of Christians decry anything whatsoever to do with Santa during the Christmas season, many seeing any attempt to link the gift-giving Santa and Jesus The Gift, as blasphemous and sacrilegious. I only have one problem with that thinking - the true spirit of Santa is still with us and in fact, he paid this Christian a visit last night.
When my husband and I returned from Europe at the beginning of summer, we returned with clothes and books. We rented an unfurnished apartment and took our stuff out of storage and unpacked more clothes and books. With very little money on hand and only one income, we realized we would be without furniture for quite a while. Thankfully, our landlord was not an unobservant fellow and by the end of our first week, he came and offered to loan us a few pieces of his furniture, which lay unused in storage until he could get around to refinishing and refurbishing them. We gratefully accepted the use of a dining table and chairs, a loveseat and armchair, assuring our landlord it probably wouldn't be for long for as soon as a second job was secured we would be able to buy a few bits of furniture of our own.
That was over 3 long months ago. The second job had still not materialized and the fact I had had my landlord's furniture for such a length of time was really beginning to grieve me. I began to regularly harangue the Lord about the absence of furniture in my life, and about how nervous I was hanging onto my landlord's furniture, as I didn't want him to think we were taking advantage of his generosity towards us. In my usual myopic way, I just couldn't see how the Lord was going to be able to help - after all, it's only a few weeks before Christmas - who hires permanently on the fringe of a major holiday season? So, no money to buy furniture. I had also never heard of furniture dropping out of heaven. So the way things were looking, it would be at least February before I would be able to return my landlord's furniture.
My landlord lives with his aging parents who used to be the landlords. They can still be seen around the building helping their son take care of things. Last night, my landlord's dad, Ellie, knocked on my door and asked if I wanted some furniture. I thought he might be confused so I said that I had some of his son's furniture already and did he want it back. Again, Ellie asked me if I wanted some furniture. I asked him if it was for sale (getting ready to say "no thanks" because no matter how cheap it would have been there just wasn't the money to buy it). Ellie said "no" and again, asked me if I wanted some furniture. I have to say that at this point I wouldn't have blamed the poor old dear if he thought I was as thick as two planks. Finally, he said I should go with him and take a look at something. As I stepped into the hall, Ellie turned and then grabbed at a point of pain in his back. I asked if he was okay. He replied that he was okay considering he had just got out of hospital. Okay, so I'm nosey. I asked him what was the matter that he had been in hospital. He said he was undergoing treatment for cancer. By this point in the conversation we had arrived in front of an apartment door on the first floor. He opened the it and ushered me in.
The tenant of the apartment was moving, which was apparent by the half packed boxes everywhere. He was unable to take all of the furniture with him and had said the landlord could keep it. Ellie and his son thought of us. Ellie pointed to a lovely country cottage style three-seater couch, a long, solid wood coffee table, a side table and a dinette set with four chairs, "They're yours if you want them, and there might be a few more pieces from the other room tomorrow when he actually moves."
I truly couldn't speak because I was choking on tears. "So, is that okay?" he asked. I threw my arms around that dear old man and blessed him through my tears and told him he was an answer to prayer. Just then his son came into the apartment and I excitedly pointed out to him that Christmas had arrived early with these truly wonderful gifts I had just received. They both chuckled and then, just as I stepped out the door, Ellie said that he loved Christmas and used to play Santa every year for a number of years at one of the Universities here in BC. I am not kidding when I say that as I turned and looked into that old man's face, I saw the twinkling eyes of 'Santa' — a servant of God giving gifts to the poor!
Madelainee is a wonderful friend and writer. Thanks, Madie, for the gift of your considerable talents!—Grant