The best laid plans . . .

I imagine things were pretty hectic for Joseph and Mary. You know how it is in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. And expecting their first child. Add on top of that some pretty high expectations for the child from Mary's family. Then there was the travel. Maybe after a few children came along they could have an excuse to stay at home for the holidays. But for now they packed up, loaded the donkey, and joined the crowds along the road to Bethlehem, where they went from inn to inn looking for a place to stay. You wonder if Mary had something to say to Joseph about not making reservations ahead of time.

But maybe Mary and Joseph took comfort in having so much to do and relished the thought of getting out of town. They had a few things they were going to have to face up to when things slowed down. There was still a bit of gossip around the wells about Mary's pregnancy. And there were whispers about the crazy things that Mary's family had said about the child she was carrying. And worse than that, Mary and Joseph knew the truth, and it seemed far more preposterous than anything the best local gossips could come up with. So being busy was good.

But then Jesus arrived. He demanded their attention.

I overbooked this advent. I make no bones about it, I did it so I wouldn't have time to sit still. I need to just get the season over with, and the easiest way to do it as far as I was concerned was to schedule non stop things to do for the rest of the year.

But, sometimes Jesus just comes anyway.

I did a Christmas program for a group this morning. And it wasn't even on my calendar. My mother just asked me about it after she noticed in the newspaper that I was doing a program on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.
If anybody ever asked me, I don't remember. But I finished my last case in court at about 10:15, so no problem. The program did not go exactly as I had planned, but it turned out okay I thought, and I was packing up the guitar and ready to head to the car. The morning was a success. Three more hours checked off.

Then I looked up. An old friend was standing in front of me, blocking my only route out. Actually he is the father of an old friend. One of my best friends in high school who died tragically in an automobile accident. When I looked into his face I could not look away. It was no longer his face, it was Johnny's. We stood there a few seconds, speechless, eyes locked. He finally broke the silence, "I love you Bob." With tears in his eyes he turned and walked away.

I sat down, the room empty by then. Except that it wasn't really empty. Jesus arrived. Once again.