It was the Monday before Christmas when it hit me, when I finally felt Advent closing in on me.

I honestly thought I had missed it. I thought it flew by with all the well intentioned ways I was going to celebrate it. I had planned to share my weekly Advent progress complete with pictures of the perfect tree and the perfect wreath. I love Advent. I love the journeying, like the expectant parents towards Bethlehem. I love the nesting, like a mother preparing her home for the arrival of a new babe.

But all that didn’t happen. Instead, we started a small house project which kept getting bigger and bigger – as house projects tend to do.

The first week came and I had no electricity for the Christmas lights, and my Advent wreath was buried behind a mound of boxes in my garage.

Week two came and went, and I spent it doing laundry at the Laundromat and figuring out how to make some kind of a meal from the microwave in my laundry room.

Third Sunday of Advent came and there was a stove in the living room instead of a Christmas tree.

Only nine days of Advent left, and I’m missing it. Just like I missed the Simbang Gabi masses with Grace, a nine day novena were the mass is celebrated before dawn in honor of Mary, in this case at 5:30 a.m., each morning ending on Christmas Eve.

It is a beautiful tradition when the church is prepared for the coming of a King. Majestic trees line the back altar, the Christmas Crèche lays in wait – a barren manger ready for a new born babe, the Three King’s journey, inching closer each day to the scene. Lights in traditional Filipino style flank the altar while the choir sings traditional songs. But I missed it because of all the other commitments.

I was missing Advent.

Or at least I thought I was until Monday, when “it” happened.

I awoke that Monday before Christmas only to find my contact lens had lodged itself behind the lid of my eye. Hours of washing and lubricating of the eye did not coax it out.

I finally managed to retrieve a portion of it which meant the other half was still somewhere in my eye!  I called eye doctor after eye doctor looking for someone to take me, but because of Christmas, they were either all booked up or closed. Even the Urgent Care didn’t have room for me.

One day before Christmas Eve and I realized this must be how Mary and Joseph felt as they looked for a room.

Finally after a visit to an Optometrist, I was referred to an eye Clinic that could fit me in.

The doctor enters into the exam room, pauses and says, “You know before I remove this from your eye I need to remove something from my own eye.” He turned and looked in the mirror and wiped something from his eye, pulled out a pair of tweezers and moved towards me. With a sharp object coming at my eye I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scripture story: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)

With his eye cleared he placed a toothpick at the corner of my eye and inverted. With some very sharp tweezers he was able to plucked the torn contact from my eye.

This scripture was reminding me to turn inward to prepare for the coming of a Savior. I hadn’t forgotten Christ in Christmas, but I had forgotten myself in the Advent preparing. In all my failed attempts to prepare for the celebration of the Nativity, I had failed also to prepare my heart for His coming – unwrapping it and letting love in.

And there it is.

I didn’t miss Advent at all. It came just in time, His time.