secret santa

There was an early Christmas in Florida this past weekend.

On Friday night, Santa came… although rather than his rosy cheeks and usual red suit, he was tanned and wearing an untucked western shirt and slippers. And this Santas’ helpers, were a few sweet ladies who had been shopping for months for the couple of dozen kids who were lucky enough to be part of it.

Santa has come to northeast Florida in the Fall for the last three years, with an incredible spread of toys and gifts underneath a Christmas tree, with handwritten names on each and every one, and putting smiles on lots of children’s faces, including ours.

Here’s a quick recap from Christmas time in Florida the last three years…

This year, Indy got a little boy baby that she’d been hoping for for awhile. She named him David Russ Feek. His first name after Rebecca’s younger brother and his middle after our busdriver Russell, who faithfully fires up his bus each Sept for the trip down I-24 to the southernmost North Pole.

This particular Santa, the one who lives just outside Jacksonville, doesn’t like the limelight and doesn’t want any recognition, so I’ll have to just call him Ed. He’s been a dear friend of ours for many years and his blessings don’t only come in the form of wrapped gifts under tinsel-covered trees. He’s been known to change people’s lives with the stroke of a pen. Helping families who have lost loved ones. Anonymously paying off someone’s medical bills. Giving strangers a job, and hurting people a brand new start. And in our case, coming alongside of us when we first had the idea of opening the schoolhouse at our farm in 2018 - helping when help was needed, and often even when it wasn’t.

Through the years he’s continued to stand beside, and encourage us in our endeavors. Each June, he sends a couple of his big boom trucks up here to to support (literally and figuratively) our annual Homestead Festival.

You see, when he isn’t being Santa, Ed and the electric business he owns with his sons, sends hundreds of his trucks all over the U.S. when there are ice storms, hurricanes and worse, to get power back on for folks who desperately need it.

And though he has been one of the main sponsors of our yearly festival - we know that Ed’s not actually that interested in homesteading - what he’s really interested in supporting, and investing in us and our dreams. And it’s a wonderful thing to have people believe in you. Especially when you’re doing something hard, that you’ve never done before.

When I first met Ed seven years ago, he shook my hand and said, “young man…the Lord’s been very good to me and blessed me, and I just want to be a blessing to others”. And he has been, and continues to be to all sorts of people, every single day. He’s one of those people that is happiest when he sees those around him happy. When they are prospering, he feels like he is too.

A couple of years ago, he had the idea of throwing a little gathering in his backyard for his neighbors and friends. He asked me if I’d come sing a few songs at the first one, and then the second, and then again this last weekend. This year he had Wynonna Judd come and end the afternoon of music for everyone.

And though he was in the front row grinning ear to ear as she sang hit song after hit song, I think he was mostly smiling knowing what a wonderful time his friends, family and neighbors were having. And they were. Just a few feet away from one of their musical heroes, singing along with pretty much every word of every song.

Here’s a fun glimpse of this year’s backyard get-together that my nephew Mikel put together…

After the fireworks, when we were loaded up on the bus, and headed back north… I couldn’t help but think that this one was going to be an evening that none of the people that were there will ever forget… including each of us who came down from Tennessee to be part of it.

I’ve learned a lot from my friend Ed through the years. Mostly that we are blessed to be a blessing. The unearned love that God has given us isn’t for us to keep, it’s to give to others, whether we think they deserve it or not.

May we all have a secret Santa like Ed in our lives. And even more, may we all be one in the lives of others.