It’s Christmas Eve at Joe’s All Night Stop and Shop.
Tim, Phil and Noreen were in charge of the whole place.
Which was plenty considering that it was empty.
They were really just kids, put in charge of the place because no one else would work Christmas Eve. Normally Tim and Phil did aisle cleanups and carried groceries out to the car. Noreen was a year older, she was normally a cashier, but tonight she was dubbed the assistant-assistant to the assistant manager.
Which meant she still had to run the cash register, because Tim and Phil didn’t know how.
Come about one AM things were really quiet, nothing to do but chew bubble gum and think about all the fun everybody else was having.
If there was a center to the universe, a hub in the middle of everything, well these three were somewhere else in a galaxy far, far away, a long, long time ago.
Tim popped his bubble gum for the one hundred billionth time when things went crazy. First the sliding doors started opening and shutting, over and over. Then the grocery carts out in the parking lot started to roll and bump all over the place.
Noreen, Tim and Phil watched this for about a minute not breathing not moving, then it stopped. Noreen took a deep breath, and real quiet like said, “Hey Tim, you and Phil go over there and lock those doors and put up the “Closed for business sign”.
Phil said, “Noreen, you’re in charge, you do it yourself.” Noreen was pretty sure that wasn’t what being in charge meant, but rather than pointing this out she went to the doors to lock them herself.
Well that was when the lights began to shine, talk about blazing glory!
There was singing like every star in heaven was its own choir and all those star filled choirs sang out as one.
All that could be called sound was filled up with the strange music, the beauty stopped their hearts with sensory overload.
It was like Close Encounters, meets ET and they go have a visit with the X-files during the Super Bowl halftime show.
It was very loud, very bright, very happy, and very weird.
Apparently, The Savior, the Lord, the Messiah, the King of the Universe was born this night, in the parking lot down the street in an old El Camino because they ran out of gas and cash.
After things calmed down and all the angelic host had said their goodbyes after buying all the chocolate in the store – angels pay in cash, by the way. After all that, Noreen, Phil and Tim checked the television and the internet to see if anyone else had been given the news.
They were the only ones. No one else had been told. The heavenly host had run out their batteries just to tell these two bag boys and the assistant, assistant to the assistant manager at an off brand super market about this baby in an El Camino.
Tim said, “Shouldn’t they have told the President or CNN or someone? Why us? I mean I can’t even tie my own shoes.” Which was true, he still used those Velcro shoes.
Noreen thought about it for a second and said, “I think the priorities of the heavens and the earth might be a little bit different than what we thought, but we can talk about that later.
Tim you run over to aisle three and get one of those little gas cans. Phil you go over to aisle six and pick up some of those Huggies for newborns. I’ll get some coffee and blankets.”
So three evangelists ran down the street looking for an out of gas El Camino, some scared cold parents and a little baby. They had some exciting news to share.
Just another Christmas Eve at Joe’s All Night Stop and Shop.
Three kids in the middle of nowhere spreading the news that God had arrived.
Why them? Why all the hosts of heaven singing and blazing to let them know?
Like Mary, Christmas gives us much to treasure and ponder in our hearts. Why all this glory for these shepherds in the middle of nowhere?
Why us? What do we do with this news this night?
What we thought was ordinary, nowhere and nobody has become extraordinary.
Why us?
What do we do?
Who do we tell?
This night, right now.