Late in the afternoon last Saturday, I was attempting to put lights and garland on my fireplace mantel like I do each year.  Nothing was staying in place and two strings of lights ended up falling down and breaking.  I had been feeling overwhelmed with the coming of the holidays and the pressure to get everything done like so many at this time of the year.  We so strive to make everything look perfect, our mantle, our tree, but when things do not go so right, it reminds us we have so much on our plates.  My boys are grown now, my Mom has not been feeling well and other changes happening in my family is overwhelming me.

The lights falling was like the “icing on the cake.”

My husband came in and asked what was wrong.  I ended going into an entire litany of things that had been overwhelming me.  We talked for a few minutes and then he left for evening mass.  He came back an hour or so later with a bag of new lights from our local CVS.  I said to him he had just given me the best Christmas present and that seemingly small task of going to replace the lights meant the world to me that night.

It also occurred to me that God had given me a very big nudge to help me re-light my advent trail to Christmas.

Shared by Bonny Chopey