I groggily awoke this morning in my cozy tiny house and slithered out of bed anticipating a quiet and slow morning here at THE121. I climbed the stairs to wake up Maggie Marie and wished her a Merry Christmas Eve! I checked her bed carefully as last night she had been vomiting. All ok.

She ate her breakfast while I prepared myself my 43 year old Christmas Eve traditional cinnamon toast breakfast. The house filled with the aroma of cinnamon and coffee brewing while Christmas songs played.

I sat down to spend time with the Lord, coffee and cinnamon toast in hand, when my phone began exploding with text messages and a phone call.

The Christmas box never arrived.

Yes the one with my presents from Ohio. I shrugged it off expecting it would arrive later in the week, it’s not what Christmas is about to me anyways.

Except they said it was delivered.

The UPS driver lies, I told myself.

Phone calls to corporate, no responsibility taken, I surrendered that it was probably stolen at the bottom of my long drive. We’ll file a claim later.

Back to my coffee and Bible.

Then I sat in the quiet of THE121 crocheting and enjoying the snow, when I felt a whisper from the Holy Spirit check the bag you threw in your truck last week.

Last week as I was pulling up my long drive, I saw a random garbage bag thrown into the woods on the side of my drive. I saw a target box in the bag and knew that must be the present from my sister. I threw it in the back seat of my truck as, well, a tiny house doesn’t have a lot of space to keep large boxes and went about life.

But as the Spirit whispered, I listened and opened the garbage bag. There was the box from Ohio!

I phoned Ohio and exclaimed the Christmas miracle!

The package wasn’t where I expected it to be. It wasn’t in the wrapping I expected it to be in, and so in my mind it must have gotten lost or stolen.

My mind immediately went back to the least unexpected package this season celebrates.

Jesus wasn’t delivered by an expected person. He wasn’t delivered in an expected way. He wasn’t even wrapped in an expected package. The shepherds were guided by a star to find Jesus. I expect they wouldn’t have found him any other way as he was delivered in a very unexpected place.

So I wonder. What are we missing because we expect them or it to be a certain way?

May our eyes be opened this Christmas season to see the unexpected.

Enjoy the staged photo of my Christmas Eve tradition!