We had a skiff of snow last night.  This morning at about 1100 I went out, fed the birds, came back in, put things away, looked out the window to see large flakes of snow coming down so thick that  Cherry Hts, across the valley, a half mile away, was just a blur (usually it is easily seen and I can actually count the trees in a cherry orchard, not at 1105.)  1115 it had stopped as if it hadn’t started.

MEMORIES:

There are many things that can happen on Christmas Eve that you wish had not – family tragedies are the worse and not to demean that fact - another one of the worse things that could happen to you on Christmas Eve is to hit Santa Claus’s ‘sleigh’ with him in it.   

Larry Lange is at least 6’5”.  He has weighed in access of 300 pounds since I first met him forty years ago; he was about 18 at the time.  He is a fireman.  He, like a lot of fireman, had a business on the side.  It is was a landscaper, he had a crew of men and many clients he worked with to help them improve their landscape and then he took care of it afterwards, as well as other odd jobs. 

He had an early 1950’s chevy, he called it his ‘billboard,’ people would see it parked on the street and would go looking for him to set up a time to do work at their house.

Larry also had another job during this time of year.  Larry was THE The Dalles Santa Claus.  He went around on Christmas Eve (later, because he had so many places, he started a few days ahead of time) and visited homes. 

It was the early 70’s, it was Christmas Eve, a quiet night when we received a phone call of an accident at 12^th St and Dry Hollow.  That intersection is a four way stop.  However, it was snowing that year and the roads were slick.  One car had tried to stop, couldn’t and slid into the other one.  No one was injured.

Arriving on the scene I saw the car.  Larry was right, you knew where he was when you saw that old Chevy.  Tonight, Christmas Eve, it was sitting crossways in the road with a large dent on the driver’s side back portion of the car.  The second car was also there, with a banged up front end.  Larry was standing outside the car....in his Santa Suit. 

He said he was okay; I went to the driver of the other car and her passenger who was crying.  I asked them if they were okay, the driver/mother said yes, they were both okay.  The passenger, a six year old girl however, was very upset.  I asked her if she was okay and with tears running down her cheeks she nodded yes, then “Momma hit Santa Claus!!”  This statement was quickly followed by a gush of more tears.

Mother was upset, and was also horrified, she HAD hit Santa Claus after all, and it didn’t help to have her daughter ‘witness’ it.  Poor Larry felt really bad and assured the little girl that all would be fine, he would still be going to her house, etc. but you could tell she wasn’t so sure.

On the one hand, of course, I and the other officers were sympathetic and trying to help and investigate the accident, etc.  Hard to imagine how that would have felt having that happen to us with our kids in the car.  And NO, we did not issue a citation.

On the other hand we were all trying to keep a straight face, for as tragic as this was for those three, it was funny and would be a story none of us were soon to forget. 

Even over 40 years later.

The subsequent years, Santa had a driver.

Another story about Santa Larry tomorrow.

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"How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments." —Benjamin Franklin

“That we are born to be happy is scarcely questioned by anyone. No one bothers to prove that fallen men have any moral right to happiness, or that they are in the long run any better off happy. The only question before the house is how to get the most happiness out of life. Almost all popular books and plays assume that personal happiness is the legitimate end of the dramatic human struggle.

Now I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success....”  AW Tozer

2 Timothy 3:2-4  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

⁴ No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Both of these quotes, and the verse, greeted me this morning as I opened my e-mails.

What makes us happy?  What do we have to do to enjoy that happiness?

Being happy is a good goal, isn’t it?  Doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy?

No one wants to go around with a frown on their face hating everything – and truth be told, we don’t want to be around those kinds of people.

So what is wrong with being happy?

Nothing, of course, but it is in the attaining that happiness we need to be careful about.

We can so focus on the ‘things’ that make us happy – or we think they will if we can just obtain/attain them - that we neglect our time with God.

We forget to consult Him, not only daily, but even weekly – or monthly; we just go after what we think will make us happy.

We often here the “biblical” quote “money is the root of all evil.”  That is false.

1 Timothy 9:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

It is the love of money that is the root of all evil, not money itself.

It is the desire to have more and in doing so we focus on what gets us the money or fame, or success or even happiness and forget about our responsibility to God.

Thus Tozer’s quote has meaning – “Now I submit that the whole hectic scramble after happiness is an evil as certainly as is the scramble after money or fame or success...”

It is the coveting of the thing that places a barrier between us and God.  We need to remove that barrier, no matter what it is.

Instead of thinking of self first, we need to have a conversation with God at least once a day. 

It is far too easy for Christians to get so focused on life, that we forget why God left us on earth after our profession of faith in the sacrifice of His Son. 

We remain here to serve God and tell others about Him that is our mission.  We need to seek after the things of God; first.

1 Timothy 9:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

In doing so we will find the peace and joy that God gives His people; and that, will make us happy – even though we may suffer because of it.

Later, Art (-: