Already it seems 2013 has a lot to answer for!  Too many health problems, vehicle problems, school problems, work problems these last three weeks.  The long grey work days aren’t helping!  Emmanuel, where did you GO?!

While fighting the flu last week I was also trying to prepare for the start of a regional World Religions class.  We wonderfully had LOTS of people coming …but then I learned that all the physical set up was going to fall on me – by my lonesome, flu or no flu.  Nope, I wasn’t thrilled.

By chance came a call from a coworker about another topic…which turned into concern over how I was doing… which turned into an unexpected offer to go set up the room himself.  Oh, bless!!  In doing so another coworker was encouraged to set out coffeepots and refreshments for me…bless, bless. 

Emmanuel, God Still With Us, strikes again!

God With Us showed up again in the grocery store later that week.  It must be I don’t get out enough, but I have to wonder at the somber faces Kroger seems to create.  So, I was amused and delighted to encounter a thirty-something smiling father, who gleefully rolled his cart down the aisle to converse with me about the benefits of homemade vs. canned soup. and to share with a previous stranger some photos of his obviously adored, if not sleeping very well, seven-week-old son.  Bless, Emmanuel, God still with us!

Today, in one of the most serious bastions of American bureaucracy, the post office, Emmanuel struck again.  The vehicular-disaster monster was on the loose, and in a hurry to get home so a son could take off for school, I accidentally mailed an unstamped bill that was to be hand-delivered.  Oh, blast!   A frazzled me was able to get in touch with an understanding postmaster who not only went out in the cold rain to search through a mailbox’ content, but who then tracked me down to tell me the good news of a successful find.   Bless, bless, BLESS!  

Emmanuel, God is with us – still – in the moments of compassion, understanding, and respect we show each other.  If you seek him, you will find him still!  For the Christmas holidays may be over for the year, but the Incarnation lives on in each of us, if we allow it.  Allow it! Bless, Emmanuel, bless.

Photo Credit: Light after Darkness, Used under Creative Commons Licensing, flickr/JD Photography

Sue Sack

Sue Sack is Director of Adult Faith Formation for Precious Blood, St. Rita and St. Paul, Englewood