I suppose when you get done slicing and dicing it, Advent is about seeking and Christmas is about finding. Which works, sequentially. But which doesn't always make sense, experientially. Because when you've lived as long as I have, things tend to get jumbled together. I've got 60 years of seekings and findings ... and losings ... and reseekings ... and refindings.

Except, as I remember it, the surprise was on John, in that Jesus found him. I guess it's like that, sometimes. To those who wait for it long enough ... and who want it badly enough ... occasionally the good stuff falls in their laps.

I heard this story the other day and it sounded unbelievable. But the guy who told it swears to its truth. It seems that there was a lady of limited means who always wanted to take a luxury cruise. After considering her fantasy to be an impossible dream for many years, she scraped together enough shekels to book economy passage on a six-day tour of the Caribbean. For all I know, she had the room next to the boilers.

Figuring that the cost of food on the ship would be prohibitive, she packed several boxes of crackers, cereal and other snack-type foods into her luggage and proceeded to eat three meals a day in her room. On her last night aboard ... after counting and recounting the contents of her pocketbook with care ... she decided to splurge and take her last meal in the dining room. Expecting to be presented with the bill for such a sumptuous repast, she inquired with the waiter about its delay in coming. Taken aback by her request, he quickly regained his composure in time to say: "Surely madam understands that everything has already been taken care of. It's all a part of the package."

To which the world says ... "Surprise."

To which the church says ... "Grace."

And to which John may well have said ... "I have been waiting for this all my life."