THE DAD THAT WASN’T THERE.

Filled with joy and astonishment, a child stared at Santa as Santa handed him gift after gift. His little heart almost burst with thrill as Santa said, “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Chritmas!” Soon excitement grabbed his attention as his little hands tore the gifts wraps, revealing most of the things he had asked Santa for; lost in amazement he didn’t even notice when Santa left.

When he looked up and noticed that Santa was gone, he understood that Santa had to leave because he had other kids to visit. Indeed he had to visit all the kids in the world in one night; the little child could only imagine Santa riding in the night sky, singing “Ho! Ho! Ho!” as the red nosed Rudolph and the other reindeers happily and swiftly pull his flying chariot.

A knock on the door yanked this child out of his world of imagination. His mother opened the door and it was his father. “Dad! Dad! You missed Santa!” the child screamed, and in a sad note he added, “Oh Dad, I begged you to stay. I wanted to introduce you to Santa, but you couldn’t stay at home just for this one night.” The father tried to explain to the child that he had to step out, but it all sounded like an empty excuse to the boy. “Every Christmas eve, I beg you to stay at home to see Santa, but you never do. Sometimes I wonder if you truly love me.” The boy said.

25 years later, the boy was now a father. As he dressed in a red Santa suit, his mind drifted towards his son. He remembered that his son had begged him to stay at home to meet Santa. How he wished he had stayed, but he couldn’t because if he did Santa would not come. By staying at home he would have shown his son how loving and caring he was, but that would deny his son the joy of meeting the supernatural Santa. He knew afterwards he son will hate him like he used to hate his father for not staying to meet Santa; his son might even question his love. This made this man very sad, but he would rather endure being hated by his young son than denying the child his happiness.

Soon, disguised and looking jolly in a red suit, he stepped into his house. As his son sat on “Santa’s lap” filled with excitement, “If only Dad had been around!” the little boy exclaimed with excitement. The father’s mind drifted back to his own father. Now he realized how loving his father was!

Later that evening, the man knelt beside his bed to pray. “God, if only you had been around when I was going through difficulties, things would have been better; if only you had shown me your love! But I prayed, you didn’t listen, I called on you but you refused to be around me. Dear God, I know I’m too small to demand your presence but please, at least send me thy love during my most difficult times. Also, please God, be there for my kid when he needs you, send your love to him and don’t disappoint him like you disappointed me… Amen” After praying, he lay down on his bed and slept.

A certain atmosphere of irony enveloped him as he slept. He didn’t realize that God, in His love, had always been there for him, but He always disguised His love in a way that was beneficial to the spiritual development of the man, and not in a way that will only gratify him physically. God cared more about man’s spiritual or eternal happiness than his instant and transient material or physical happiness.

Dear friends, as we celebrate the earthly birth of Divine love incarnate, Jesus, let us try and open our inner eyes and recognize that He had always been around us and had never left us desolate. Let us finally grow into men who realize that their father had always been around during Christmas, only disguised as Santa for their joy. Let us realize that whatever had happened to us in the past, no matter in what form they had come—be they joyous or sorrowful—they were only the Love of God disguised in the way that is most beneficial to our spiritual development.

Merry Christmas to you all.

uncle today is xmas amd have eaten only bread and tea since morning. i cant biliv am starving on christmas. my belle jus dey twerkr.

Waouh. Masterpiece. I've been touched by the allegory.

thank you at justcool, y did u stop writing on nairaland. I miss your explanations about Grail message & Grail related activity

McTobe:
thank you at justcool, y did u stop writing on nairaland. I miss your explanations about Grail message & Grail related activity

Hi McTobe.

Thanks! I'm still active on nairaland.

Remain blessed.

M

thank u

Deleted

Hi McTobe

Thanks for your very worthy questions. I will exhaustively share my perceptions on them as soon as time permits me; at the moment, I'm staying away from Nairaland in order to give my full attention to order important endeavors.

I do not want you feel that I'm ignoring you, hence I decided to drop these few line. Kindly bear with me, I will return to nairaland as soon as time permits me.

Thanks and remain blessed