Not as Mary Expected

My Christmas Eve day did not go anything like I expected it to go.

Mom died 12 days prior. I had expected earlier in the year that she would be present at family Christmas gatherings. It was also the first Christmas without Grandpa.

After visitation and funeral and activities with family and shopping trips to prepare for Christmas and a trip to the cemetery to choose things for mom's marker, I was hoping for a quiet day at my sister's house making granola with her. Instead, I took my youngest to an immediate care clinic only to find out he had a double ear infection.

With still some potential remaining for a quiet afternoon, I found myself waiting for more than 45 minutes at Publix for an antibiotic script to be filled. I was not fuming, but rather disappointed that my Christmas Eve wasn't going as I had planned. I found some small amused comfort in the fact that the Pharmacist's name was Emmanuel. God With Me. At the pharmacy.

Arriving at church more than a half hour early, we found there was no room in the inn. To make our boys more comfortable, we decided to sit in the social gathering space and participate in mass via the television, if you could call it participate. My youngest was very busy and I ended up standing with him near the kitchen counter. Preparing myself mentally and prayerfully to receive Christ in the Eucharist, I was stunned as a woman left the communion line to ask me where I had gotten my necklace. So much for prayerful preparation. And I was saddened for Jesus.

Reflecting on all of these things throughout the day, I was reminded that Jesus' birth day didn't go the way Mary and Joseph had expected it to go, either. Yet He came to them.

As He came to me.

I am grateful.