which was titled from a Christmas carol. After that, Christmas hit at the fevered pace that we associate with the real holiday's anticipatory season, a "season" retailers put brashly in the face of every shopper: Christmas. The thing is, it's March. Apparently that doesn't matter...I'm having Christmas anyway. Here's the evidence, all accumulated in the course of about 12 hours:
! After the blog-title carol, my little one asks me to sit and watch a cartoon with him. It happened to be a Christmas episode. At that point, I thought, that's interesting, I used a Christmas carol for my blog title. Then...
! Playing a simulation-styled video game later, Christmas pops up randomly again in the computer-generated costuming of the character.
! Another sitcom droning in the background as I went to sleep. Different channel from the cartoon, but same subject: Christmas episode.
! This morning, a kid walks into home room singing Jingle Bells...(there was more, that's what I remember for now...)
Finally, I'd had enough. I asked this student to come over to my desk. Being a kid who is frequently in trouble, he assumed the worst and was preparing his best defense given he had no idea what he'd done wrong. I eased his mind, telling him the weird pattern of the "Christmas coincidence." I asked him what prompted him to sing a Christmas song. "Well, I was singing the stupid version, Mrs. Way...you know the one that goes, "tumbling through the snow, on a broken pair of skis..." It turned out he was to the "normal" chorus as he walked in the door. He had no idea what inspired him to sing the song, just came into his head.
Speaking of coincidences--which I leave the last one unresolved because it is unresolved--I discovered today that my 4th grade son's new teacher...the woman who replaced his former one as she went on maternity leave last month...this new teacher is a woman I've been praying over for about ten months, and I didn't even realize she was this same person. I prayed for her and her ex-husband at the request of the ex-husband's mother, who is a very dear friend of mine...a soul-sister, a woman of profound and devout faith. She shared with me that her son and his wife were divorcing at the unction of her son. We talked about the things God might be doing in the relationship; we talked about what would help them both to grow, maybe even to someday reconcile. But she left it that the son was in a phase of being unreceptive to spiritual appeals, and the daughter-in-law was still dear to them, but was obviously on the other side of the breach, and in ways unapproachable to them. I played flute in the couple's wedding...but that was 6, almost 7 years ago. I didn't recognize her, but she recognized me...the new teacher is the young man's bride. Today, she asked to talk to me. Even then, I didn't recognize her, until she talked about my playing in the wedding...until she mentioned her in-laws. She cried a lot. Her heart was in exactly the right place for me to begin to say to her the beginning of the things that her mother-in-law and I talked about last summer...back when we were wishing there was some way for God to get these ideas to her...wishing someone would have the opportunity to minister either to her broken heart or to his. What a wonder that I'm getting the honor of being that very person.
After a while, the "coincidences" get so blatant that you have to laugh when people choose to use that word...coincidence...seriously. (grin)
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