“… and all who heard it were amazed. Luke 2:18
“God was winking at you,” chuckled my 91-year-old mother-in-law. “Happens to me all the time.” I had just finished spinning a remarkably improbable story. Like one of those billion-to-one odds kind of stories—a moment where the convergence of time place and circumstance is unusually precise. You’ve probably experienced something similar.
Walking through an obscure coffee shop, in another state, on the other side of the country, at a time when I was supposed to be someplace else, I noticed a middle-aged gentleman cradling a puppy, cinnamon bun and juggling a 16-ounce coffee approaching the exit. Anticipating his predicament, I quickened my step to pen the glass door. Gratefully passing and uttering a soft thank you, he continued to the parking lot. “Scotty…is that you?” I sputtered. The man promptly turned. Sure enough. My doubles partner from our college tennis team—40 years prior. Hugs. Laughter. Four decades of catching up and “what happened to so and so.” An unplanned, unexpected, serendipitous gift.
On a planet of 8.2 billion people, in a state boasting 40 million residents, in a place I do not live and at a coffee shop I’ve never visited, I collide with a dear old friend. A red light at the intersection, a slow crossing pedestrian, a quick text message…and the encounter never happens. A mere 10 second delay and it’s simply another medium dark roast to go. Seriously, what are the odds? Better chance of winning the Powerball. Einstein famously said, “There are only two ways to lives one’s life: one is though nothing is a miracle. The other as if everything is a miracle.” I wonder how the father of quantum physics might interpret my unlikely encounter. A miracle? Maybe. My mother-in-law—with nine long decades of life in the review mirror—prefers to call it a wink from God. Works for me.
And maybe that’s the point of our Advent season. As we prepare for The Miracle, we are given opportunities to open our eyes and hearts to everyday miracles. Nothing is ordinary when we are attuned to the divine daily. Advent, therefore, is less about what happens in these next weeks leading up to the birth of Jesus and more about how we chose to interpret those happenings. Two ways to live: No miracles. Miracles everywhere. Our choice.
I think the Christmas story actually confirms this idea. Our world-altering historical event unfolds because of the attentiveness and acts of ordinary people. God uses people who pay attention to God’s subtle (and not so subtle) interventions. Think Joseph. Think Mary. Think Elizabeth. Shepherds. Wise Men. Simeon. Anna. Their awareness to the promptings of God becomes invitations to act and participate in God’s bigger story. So, I am hoping this Advent might awaken me once again. Those ‘billion to one” chance encounters are great. But there are more, less obvious, winks from God happening all the time. I just need to notice and ponder.
How about my breakfast a few weeks ago with an Afghani refugee? Fleeing from the Taliban, surviving a year in a refugee camp, he’s sponsored by a group of Presbyterian women to start a new life in the United States. What are the odds of our lives intersecting—in Southy Jersey of all places! A miracle. A wink. A new friend. A gift to sit in the presence of courage, faith, resilience.
Our lunch with my buddy who battled cocaine addiction and alcohol for twenty years. Should be dead. Wife should have left him. Kids should be messed up. None of the above. He finds God, continues to do the hard work and celebrates 20 years of sobriety. What are the odds? Another miracle. Another gift. More to come this Advent season if I keep my eyes and heart open. Can’t wait.
Saint Luke writes, “…But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” What were these things? Miracles. Winks. Both big and small. Noticed. P:ondered. Treasured. Gifts of grace for the journey.
Bruce Main
President & Founder
Urban Promise
Camden, New Jersey