“There he is Momma!” My hearted pounded. Could it be? I pressed my nose against the back car window and pointed toward the night sky. “I see Rudolph’s red blinking nose!”

My mother gazed out of her side window. “Sorry honey. That’s a blinking light from an airplane.”

“You sure momma?”

She paused for a second. “Yes, I am.”

My eight year old eyes continued to probe the star filled night sky. I have always loved gazing into the Heavens, especially at night. I still do. But that night I was desperate to see Santa’s sleigh in flight. There was a horrible rumor going around my class at school that Santa wasn’t real.

I needed to prove he was real. Not believing in Santa was one step toward growing up that I wasn’t ready to take.

It was a short drive to my Mamaw Holbert’s house on Christmas Eve, so that didn’t leave me a lot of time to find the light from Santa’s sleigh. Unfortunately for me, I saw many red blinking airplane lights. Even now when I see an airplane flying at night, I think of that ride in the car.

On the way back home, I leaned my head against the back window. Why even bother to search the night sky? Maybe it was time I faced the truth. The disappointing truth.

Then I had an idea, but it was a long shot. What if I needed to be looking toward my house instead of up in the sky? When we drove past the spot where our house was on the other side of the ridge, I leaned forward and pressed my face into the window again.

Right above the tree line, I saw a humongous white light. And I saw a small red one in front of it. They both flashed and in an instant they were gone.

In those days, cameras had the flash with a large bulb. Let me tell you, when they went off, you saw spots in front of you for about 10 minutes. To me, those flashes were almost painful. Well, this bright white light was the same kind of brilliant flash, except it didn’t hurt my eyes.

In my child’s mind, I knew I had seen Santa and his sleigh rise up from our backyard with Rudolph in the front. And the brilliant flash was them rocketing up skyward before anybody could see them.

I jumped around in the seat and exclaimed: “I just saw Santa and his sleigh take off!”

“No you didn’t honey. It was just your imagination,” My mother answered.

“Didn’t you see that light?” I couldn’t believe they had missed it.

“Neither one of us saw it,” my dad answered this time.

I knew what I had seen and I couldn’t wait to get home and prove them wrong. As soon as my dad stopped the car and shifted it into park, I leapt out and ran toward our house.
My parent’s didn’t like that either. But once we were inside, I saw the presents Santa left behind. “See! I told you!” I proclaimed as I ripped into them.

Needless to say, when I went back to school after the Christmas break, I told everybody in my class about my close encounter with Santa Claus.

That was 45 years ago and I can still see that flash of white light in my mind. But, what did I really see? Was it just the imagination of a desperate child? Or did I see some other kind of marvel and interpreted it as Santa and his sleigh? Who knows?

At this point, it is just a fun and awesome memory that I can look back on and smile. Do I still look into the sky? Yes, all the time. It still fascinates me and it always will. Let me tell you, it is very spiritual to observe the Lord’s handiwork through a telescope. Even the shapes of the clouds are awe inspiring.

But now, I know there will only be One who will be coming in the Eastern sky one day.

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27 (KJV)