Steve Sikes Blog  

Last week I was walking down the hallway of a local nursing home and was (apparently) recognized by an older lady in a wheel chair not quite ten yards away.  Once she caught my eye, she quickly began motoring toward me with a toothless smile and an announcing voice, “It’s Santa Clause everybody!  Santa Clause is here!”

When she stopped at my feet and grinned up at me, I couldn’t think of anything else to say, but – “Have you been a good girl this year?” 
She gleefully nodded her head up and down and seconded it with a “yes” and merrily wheeled on down the hall.  The entire event took less than a minute but my nine-day contemplation has yielded the following truths:

1. I look like Santa Clause (SC).  There is no doubt about it.  Plus, I was carrying a sack of goodies to one of the residents!

2. I may look like SC but I assure you – I’m not SC!  Identification by recognition is NOT always 100% accurate.  Dental records, fingerprints, and DNA can prove my identity.

3. My given name is Stephen Charles (SC).  Having the first and middle initials “SC” is just coincidental in this matter.  My parents live in Nebraska (NE), not the North Pole (NP).

This experience has led me to think more about when neighbors and strangers observe me, what do they see?  Who do they think I look / act like?  More importantly, do I leave behind the fingerprint of Jesus wherever I go…the Spirit-living and Christ-likeness fingerprint of Jesus?  Now that’s an SC worth dying for!

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).”

God is good! 

Mr. Steve