WHEN I MET SANTA

By Ken Simmons

I was 6 years old when I first met Santa. We were living on Coronado Island, across the bay from San Diego. Although living in Coronado usually meant you were living in the lap of luxury, but because we were living in government housing while in Coronado, as my father worked for companies that were building aircraft for our war effort. Today, Coronado has a number of million dollar homes facing the Pacific Ocean, but living in government housing during the war years made it clear we weren’t living among the rich and famous.

One Saturday they held a Christmas parade, and Santa was the main attraction. My parents encouraged me to run over and meet Santa, so I did, and when I met him he said I should hop up and sit on his lap, but when I did it was then that I noticed his fake beard and fake white hair. I quickly jumped down, and as I ran away crying, I was thinking, “Santa Claus is fake and it’s all a big lie. If they lied to me about Santa, maybe they lied to me about Jesus, too.”

It wasn’t until I turned 11, and living in Long Beach, California, that I finally discovered the truth and surrendered my life to Jesus. I will never forget when I was baptized, because as the minister dunked me into the water I realized what it meant to be born again. And, for the first time, I also realized what it meant to “rejoice,” as I was so happy I couldn’t contain it. I also realized that my struggle over the idea of Santa Claus was no big deal, and I soon forgot all about it.

All of the above and much, much more, can be found in my book, “The Prodigal Diaries,” a book that is full of amazing miracles. A side note about the book’s cover, the publishers, Christian Faith Publishing, had never met me, or even seen me, or pictures of me, but the shadowy figure looks exactly like me, and the figure of the running man looks just like me when I was a young man. Wow!

My second book, Jeané, Rose, the Face of Courage, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, GoodReads, etc. and it was awarded 5 stars by its readers. It is my hope that someday it can be seen on the big screen, or better yet, a 6-day mini-series on television, as it is a heart-warming story of hope and redemption that that will tug at your heart like never before. Although I wrote it, the ending still brings tears to my eyes.

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