Every year I vow to prepare for Christmas, buying presents throughout the year, gathering recipes for cookies, planning Christmas Eve dinners and special Christmas meals, etc. However, this has never happened; and this week before Christmas I find myself writing cards, wildly ordering gifts from amazon, stocking up on food, and progressively becoming more and more anxious.
Once again, despite my determined attempt to limit spending, here I stand in line at the Shoprite, and realize I forgot bread, the reason for this shopping trip. Leaving my cart with just one more customer in front of me, I trustingly run to the other end of the store, pick up three loaves and return, only to see a woman loading her cart onto the conveyor.
With steam escaping from my ears, I smile at her, and she ignores me. An older couple comes in line behind me, and I shake the urge to grumble. Meanwhile, I recognize a familiar employee checking out the woman who took my place in line. The checker is wearing a headband with two Christmas balls attached to springs. When my pushy adversary exits the scene, I empathetically tell the checker, “You look tired.”
She keeps working and I say, “I like your hat.”
She says, “A man gave me a half dozen of these in different colors. “The couple behind me must have found that funny, and laughed. My mood rose, but fell when screen showed my bill was above one-hundred dollars. Suddenly, the checker stopped and announced. “Wow, this is your lucky day. You have an angel. This is amazing.”
“I, I won something?”
“You have a Yotsey angel. It takes four ones and you have five.”
“That’s great?” I ask her.
“Better than great. The angel will stay with you all day.”
“You made that up!”
She held back a giggle. The man behind me started telling a joke about St. Peter as the line behind him grew longer due to our conversation. I showed them the medal around my neck. “This is St, Raphael the archangel. Now he has company.”
Reflection: That random incident reveals that the Christmas Spirit is still alive and well, even amid the self-inflicted anxieties of this wonderful season, celebrating God’s greatest gift to mankind.*
(Note: my AI program reminds me I should add ‘and womankind’.)
DJ Pasternak, Author 