Hey, you missed a few!

It's been a busy Advent this year, making it hard to get to moodling here. But I have a sweet story that I've been thinking about all week.

Last Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, two fellows I had never seen before joined us for Sunday morning liturgy at the Community of Emmanuel. Or maybe I had seen them before, but many of our community are irregular in attendance, coming and going depending on their circumstances.

These two came in last minute and sat toward the back of the room, chatting with each other, clearly friends who were happy to come in from the cold and have a cup of coffee together. I wasn't really aware of them at first, busy as I was greeting people, singing the Magnificat to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme, and supporting Farley in his music ministry during our weekly service.

It wasn't until we were into the Eucharistic Prayers that one of the fellows decided that something was wrong with the Advent Wreath and its three lit candles. In his assessment, the fourth candle and the white Christmas candle in the middle had gone out and needed to be relit. The two buddies conferred and one came forward as Quinn was praying, took the rose Advent candle, and lit the two remaining candles. Satisfied that he'd made things right, he turned around and headed back to his seat. He didn't see Quinn promptly blow out the two he'd lit.

When the candle-lighter got back to his seat, he looked back toward his handiwork and did a double take -- there were still only three candles lit. Huh? He looked bewildered. But his buddy waved him on to go make things right, so he got up and tried a second time. He picked up the rose candle, lit the last purple one and was going for the white Christmas candle when Quinn reached out and gently took the rose candle from him, saying, "We don't light those two yet."

I stepped forward and whispered a quick explanation about how the Advent wreath's four candles are lit on four different Sundays leading up to Christmas, and it was only the Third Sunday so far. "Oh, my bad," the fellow replied, looking sheepish, and I said, "It's okay, you didn't know, and you were only trying to help."

Later on, I saw him and his friend outside, and we had a little conversation about the Advent Wreath and the Mother of Jesus being everyone's mom, which made him happy because he misses his own mom. I invited him to join us for the lighting of candles for the next two weeks. If he comes, I hope we can get him to light those last two candles for us. I'll be watching for him!

A blessed last week of Advent to you all!