Christmas Party

Last night we had our Sunday school's Christmas party. It was a night full of unexpected surprises (which if the were excepted then they wouldn't be surprises, I guess would they?)  As we were eating one of the ladies next to me shared with the table how her father was in the hospital gravely ill and how her mother would not leave the hospital at night.

He's 94 and has been very ill off and on for the last few years.  At four different points the family was called in to say goodbye, but all four times he rallied. They nicknamed him "Lazarus" and the proverbial "Cat with Nine Lives".  Not ten minutes later after this conversation, her cell phone ranged saying her father had passed away.

Oh, wow. Not what you expect at a Christmas paty...even when you know how sick he is.

Later in the evening we played a round of "Apples to Apples"  we found out who are the sore losers in the class (not me!!) and who are the competitive ones.  But we laughed. Oh, how we laughed.

After our game the teacher (also our pastor) had us go around the room and sharing something interesting or unknown about ourselves.  What a great idea! So many of us in the class are new and we don't know each other's stories.  It was really eye-opening to listen to these small tales...who knew in our mist that the seven-month pregnant lady played soccer in college and still has some national records, or the quiet guy in the class was a re-po man, or that Drew (my husband) didn't cut grass as a teen to earn money, but put on magic shows, or the smallest most petite sweet quiet lady in class in the local prison warden! Most unexpected!

But that's what I love about getting to know people.  There's all the parts to them...just like it's been said before by several - we really are like onions with many layers. Isn't great that Jesus made us this way?  How boring we all would be is there were no surprises in people.