A Son Like No Other

According to Luke 2:41-50

Mary tells about the time they lost Jesus

We searched high and low for him.  We visited all the favorite shops and vendors we had been to.  We searched our relatives' and friend's homes.  It came to nothing.  Night and day we looked for three days.  What had happened to our Jessy?

We had given up hope and went to the Temple to pray and offer a sacrifice.  It was sundown on the third day.  He was lost.  Gone.

Then, we heard his voice echoing through the collonades.  And, there he was; sitting on a stool  surrounded by the religious elite.  They were talking, cavorting, kibitzing  about things sacred and things pagan.

Joseph could not contain himself.  He raced through the circle budging between two ranking Pharisees. In a flash Joseph grabbed Jessy by the shoulder of his tunic. 

 "Where in hell have you been"?

Jessy was suspended in the air with almost no weight on the stool hanging from his father's grip.

Fright showed on the boy's face then changed to a look that said "Oh, it's you dad".

I couldn't hear what Jessy said for women weren't allowed to approach the religious educators or any man for that matter.

Jessy smirked as he said it looking around at his audience.  Joseph, with his free hand swung a wide ope fist connecting to Jessy's lips and teeth.

The force knocked him off the stool backward into the laps of two pompous looking clerics.  They caught him though not before nose and skull collided.   The cleric sat stunned for a few seconds while his brain connected the pain and vision of blood soaked prayer shawl to reality.

Finally the cleric winced and let out a yelp fading to a moan.

""I'll give you business in your father's house..." I heard Joseph mutter.

Again he grabbed Jessy's collar and dragged and yanked the boy through the circle and gates in double time.  Jessy squirmed trying to catch his balance.

We had our boy back!

A series of mishaps…

Christmas 2010

                                          By: Cindy Matteson

A baby king to save the world?

The angel choir wasted on coarse, common shepherds?

A first time, unmarried, inexperienced mother?

A humiliated, humbled, ordinary father?

And this is how you chose to bring

the world together under this baby king.

In a series of mishaps, mistakes, and familiar things:

like hay and sheep

cloth and cold

tiny hands for a girl mama to hold.

Like songs and whispers

hums and tears

love that bolsters all our fears.

A series of mishaps?

Or, well planned irony?

Through a power not controlled by our mistaken priority.

Create in my heart

a common stable

to remind me all ways

of what you are able.

My Dog Prays

Our family dog Lilly loves the snow.  Even at her elderly age she begs to go out and chase her stick.  Of course that means me putting on my snow pants, boots, coat, hat and gloves.  Sometimes I don’t mind.  The other times I have to force myself to put on the heavy armor to battle the cold.  The dog teases enough to get me out the door.  She is quite passionate about her snow time.  Lately there has been a happy doggie at our house.  The snow has been plentiful.

Lilly finds her favorite stick and brings it near me.  As soon as I pick it up she is off to a “staging area” where she waits for me to loft the stick.  When she sees it land with a puff of white she bounds like a lion in the tall grass and pounces. She lies there chewing briefly, rolls in the snow, savors the texture of crunch against her back scratching her worries away.  Then she pauses, sniffs the air, looks and listens for any other creatures.  She seems to smile at the goodness of a new blanket of snow, the kingdom that has become her playground.

In her meditative state the dog embraces the crispness of nature born anew, the goodness of the day and the promises of the creator.  In her state of play she embodies the right order of creation and the mindset of right relationship; creature to creator.  The dog plays prayer.

And I wonder, do I have to chase a stick or roll in the snow to know what my dog seems to know about prayer?

A Surprise Meeting

 I had never met him before so I didn't know what he looked like.  From our phone conversation I judged that he was young; late 20's or early 30's.  I arrived at the chain restaurant early to enjoy a good cup of coffee and take in the headlines from the paper.  He entered the double doors and walked right over with extended hand interrupting my quiet time.  He knew me or picked me out of dozens of professionals with a luck of the draw.  How did he do that? 

Our conversation covered a broad spectrum of topics but at every turn he spoke as if he knew me fairly well. This business professional had done his homework I thought.  To be honest, I was unnerved at his knowledge about my life and yet his manner put me at ease with a convincing warmth.  All was safe. We took care of the business and the stranger left me with assurance, optimism and trust in 30 minutes or less.  Again I asked "How did he do that"? 

In "The Guide To Almost Anything  Jesuit"  James Martin, SJ describes how Jesus meets people.  In the Gospels, Jesus often meets people in the midst of their busy lives.  For instance Peter mending his nets at the seashore or Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.  Jesus also encounters people at their absolute worst like the woman ready to be stoned or the woman with the terminal illness or the man possessed, raging through the cemeteries.

In all of these situations God said to these people "I am ready to meet you if you are ready to meet me" (p.85).  They were busy, stressed out or burned out, at their wits end, some almost ready to end it all.  Jesus shows up and inserts himself into the person's crazy life and says "let's meet".  Jesus sought and found whom he was looking for.

Martin writes "If God meets you where you are, then where you are is a place to meet God". Your life does not have to be in order.  You don't have to wait till you "clean things up" or the kids leave home or your marriage is perfect.  You don't have to wait till you get more religious or go to church more.  You don't have to wait for any of that because God is ready now.

The Advent of Christ is coming, ready or not.