Why NORAD tracked Santa Claus last night: “Let us joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption”
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Millions of children eagerly awaited Santa Claus’s visit last night. If you used NORAD’s Santa tracker, you knew precisely where he was on his annual expedition. On any other night, the North American Aerospace Defense Command scans the skies for potential threats. But on Christmas Eve, at least one hundred thousand kids call into NORAD to inquire about Santa’s location, while millions more follow St. Nick’s progress via online reports in nine languages. The story points to the abiding relevance and transformational power of God’s incarnational love revealed at Christmas.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Merry Christmas and welcome to the Daily Article podcast. It's Wednesday, December the 25th, |
| 0:08.4 | 2024. I'm Chris Elkins with the Denison Forum, narrating today's daily article, written by our |
| 0:14.9 | co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. Millions of children eagerly awaited Santa Claus's visit last night. |
| 0:23.4 | If you used NORAD Santa Tracker, you knew precisely where he was on his annual expedition. |
| 0:29.6 | On any other night, the North American Aerospace Defense Command scans the skies for potential threats. |
| 0:36.9 | But on Christmas Eve, at least 100,000 kids |
| 0:40.5 | call into NORAD to inquire about Santa's location, while millions more follow St. Nick's |
| 0:46.7 | progress via online reports in nine languages. It all started with a child's accidental phone call |
| 0:53.2 | in 1955. |
| 0:54.9 | The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears ad, encouraging children to call Santa and listing a phone number. |
| 1:02.7 | A boy called, but he reached NORAD. |
| 1:05.5 | Air Force Colonel Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only red phone and was greeted by a tiny voice that began |
| 1:13.7 | reciting a Christmas wish list. When the boy questioned whether he was really talking to Santa, |
| 1:19.7 | Colonel Shoup summoned a deep voice and replied, |
| 1:23.0 | Ho, ho, ho. Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy? Shoup said he learned from the boy's mother |
| 1:30.2 | that Sears mistakenly printed the top secret number. 50 calls a day followed, and the rest is history. |
| 1:37.1 | Over the years, reporters have questioned the accuracy of Colonel Shoup's story, but no one |
| 1:42.6 | questions the popularity of the figure at its center. |
| 1:46.0 | Imagine a scenario in which Santa Claus comes to a home, presents in hand, and is turned away. |
| 1:52.7 | After all, receiving and opening a present takes a certain amount of faith. |
| 1:57.4 | We believe that the one giving the gift won't charge us for it later and didn't steal it from |
| 2:02.3 | anyone. We believe that the gift will help and not harm us. We believe that opening the gift won't |
... |
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