A couple of Christmases ago, packages were flying onto the porch—the way they do. I ripped open one of them to find that it was full of items I hadn’t ordered. There were some tubes of unfamiliar toothpaste and hand cream. They were sitting alongside a German-made frying pan.
We had received the wrong package. The toys we had ordered for our sons hadn’t come. Instead, the box was full of merchandise I knew I didn’t need. I was annoyed, especially because I didn’t have time to return anything.
I set the items aside and reordered the toys our sons wanted for Christmas. They came, and I didn’t give much thought to this new pan. And then one day I pulled it out and looked at it. It seemed as if it might be useful. Maybe it would be good for sautéing and for cooking smaller amounts of food than my larger trusted frying pan.
I washed it and put it in the drawer with my other pans. Then one day I pulled it out and gave it a try. I loved it. It was smooth and seemed to make the food cook more evenly. It quickly became one of my go-to pans.
I hadn’t known I wanted—or maybe even needed—this frying pan. But it is now one of my favorite cooking tools.
How wonderful to receive something you never asked for, but which you have come to rely on.
In these final days of Advent, I am way behind on my preparation for Christmas. I haven’t finished my shopping. Much of it I haven’t even started.
Plans for decorating and wrapping and getting to Confession during Advent—ack!—seem to be part of a mythical wish list that would make even Santa laugh.
Don’t even ask about our Christmas cards. At least they have been printed, though the box they arrived in is staring me down.
We will put our Christmas tree up this week, only because my husband is an extraordinary person who works so hard to make sure that the house is ready for Christmas.
Tonight, as I was washing that frying pan for the third—or fourth—time today, I was thinking that sometimes we receive a gift we didn’t know we needed. For me, that gift seems to be this last week of Advent. The Advent I would have asked for would have been one where the cards were sent, the gifts were wrapped and under the tree or in the mail, and everything is just humming along perfectly.
But this is the Advent that has arrived. And, as much as I might want to exchange it for the much-more-organized Advent of my dreams, there is certainly a value to this one. There will be a beauty to this time that I might not see right away. One day, I may reflect on this season as one of the most wonderful we’ve ever enjoyed together.
At moments like this, I remind myself that Mary and Joseph didn’t experience the Advent they might have expected either. They didn’t plan to welcome their new baby—the Son of God—in a stable in Bethlehem, far from everyone they knew and loved. They didn’t expect to be surrounded by shepherds and animals and angels. But they must have found great joy in those encounters. And we will find our joy by the manger, too.
Whatever these final days of Advent bring for you, I hope you are able to accept them as an unexpected gift. Maybe this will end up being your favorite Advent yet.
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