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 th…