Tell The Truth Mamma!

***DISCLAIMER***
I've had this on my heart the past few days. I'm not judging anyone or trying to pick a fight. It's just what's in my heart. If you disagree that is fine we all have the wonderful freewill to believe as we choose. This is my belief...

She could see from the slump of his shoulders, and the droop of his little head as he climbed off the school bus that something was bothering her sweet little boy. He’d been attending kindergarten classes for three months. Each day she’d watched him skip happily down the bus steps, but not today. This was the first time he’d been unable to meet her with a smile as she greeted him at the bus stop.

“Whatever is wrong big guy?” Mamma asked, when her son buried his face in her hair as she leaned down to hug him close. “It isn’t true,” Johnny sniffled. “They’re liars, all of them!”

Mamma was more confused hearing his words. Johnny was friends with everyone. He had never known a stranger and had been overjoyed to get to see all his playmates when he started school.
“Come on sweetie, we’ll talk over milk and cookies.” Mamma led him down the gravel road to their home in the country and into the welcoming glow of the kitchen.

“Now tell me who lied to you?” Mamma said as she poured a big glass of milk for them to share. Her son looked up into her eyes as his own overflowed with tears. “They teased me Mamma. They said I was a baby and that Santa ain’t real. But I know that’s a lie! I know cause my Mamma don’t lie and Mamma, you said Santa comes if I’m good, and I’ve been so very good.” Johnny looked up into his Mamma’s eyes with so much trust and hope. If a boy can’t trust his own mother to tell him the truth, who can he trust? "What do I say?" Mamma thought as she stared back into her son’s chocolate brown eyes.

“Oh Johnny, I’m so sorry honey.” She hugged him close and decided she’d have to break it to him gently. She wished this could have waited a few more years. She recalled the time she learned the truth about Santa, the Tooth Fair and snuggly Mr. Easter Bunny. But she had been in the third grade! “My if kids don’t just grow up too fast,” Mamma said with a sad look in her eyes.

She turned to Johnny and told him the truth. “Honey, Santa was real a long time ago but not in the same way that you’ve been told. The story of Santa Clause comes from a wonderful Christian man named Saint Nicholas. I suppose the story has been changed and added to over the years. No, Santa is not real in the way that you’ve been told. There are no reindeer, no elves or magic sleigh. I really thought you’d be much older before I had to tell you this."

Johnny could see his Mamma was hurting but he didn’t understand why. He was a good boy though who didn’t want to make things harder on his Mamma so like all young children he easily forgave her.

Life goes on and the days came that Johnny learned many things from his great pals at school. They weren’t always gentle and kind with the telling, like Mamma was. Unfortunately for Johnny it was a rare occasion that Mamma got to be the first to tell him something. Most of the incidents mirrored the first.

Johnny began losing all his teeth in the first grade and he was saddened when he came home to have Mamma confirm, “Yes honey the Tooth Fair is just a story too. But it was just for fun we can still play the game.”

Then the day came that Johnny surprised the Easter Bunny in the restroom at the park. Only Mr. Easter Bunny had ducked in for a quick break and he didn’t have his head on. Mamma had to tell him then that, “Yes Johnny, the Easter Bunny was just for fun too.”

Mamma did admit one thing from the beginning though, or so she thought. “Honey Halloween isn’t real. It’s just a fun day for us all to dress up and get candy. They call it the Devil’s Holiday but it’s not real so it’s ok.”

Johnny remembered all of this as he sat in church one Sunday morning. It was strange that these things would all come to his mind at a time like this. He was no longer the innocent little boy from the day’s of Santa Clause and Trick or Treating. He was “almost a man” as Daddy would say. In just a few weeks he would be able to drive on his own. Oh to be sixteen and be free! Johnny’s thoughts had begun to wander but something drew him back. “Today is the day,” said the preacher man. “Jesus is the only way.”

Johnny began to think back to the stories his Mamma would read to him. He’d always been taught about Jesus. He did some amazing things. He even walked on water! “Wow,” Johnny thought. “I’d sure like to be friends with someone like that.”

“Repent! Don’t leave today without everlasting life. You’re not promised a tomorrow.” The preacher just kept going. Johnny couldn’t make up his mind. “Mamma told me about Jesus,” he thought. “But she told me about Santa too and all the rest of those guys. Jesus is probably the same so I’ll be smart this time and Mamma won't have to feel bad when she tells me the truth. I have better things to do than waste my time with kid stuff.” As Johnny left his seat at the end of the service he felt a strange tugging at his heart. But it was easy to ignore the thoughts of the past entered his mind.

Years passed by and Mamma watched Johnny lose his way. She cried and prayed for him day and night. “Lord I taught him, I read to him, I took him to church. Lord please rescue my son!”

Mamma jumped as the heavy metal door slammed shut behind her with a loud bang. She stared around the room at all the strange, scary men in brown jumpsuits. She spotted him after just a moment. She would never forget those beautiful chocolate brown eyes. She made her way through the maze of tiny box tables to her son. Mamma spent the next five hours visiting with her sweet brown eyed boy, no longer a boy but a man. She’d brought her worn leather Bible in the hopes that he’d listen. But as soon as she began he’d stop her just like all the time’s before. “Aww Mamma, enough with the preachin’. Jesus is just a story, it’s not real. Even if he was how could he help me after all the wrong I’ve done? I deserve to be here Mamma and no one’s gonna set me free anytime soon.”

They hugged as she stood to leave. Visiting hours were over. It was time for Mamma to go home. “I love you my sweet boy.” Mamma said as she kissed his cheek. It was hard to leave him. She jumped again at the bang of the heavy metal door slamming behind her, separating her from her son.

The story is a sad one yes it is true.
But listen closely Mamma, it could happen to you.
Are you lying to your children thinking, “oh it’s just fun.”
Don’t you know there are some things that can’t be undone?
The stories you tell them, make sure that they’re true.
So when you get to Heaven they can come too.