“Yes,”he said,“I’m a rather good painter.”

“Well,” she said, “There are two gallons of green paint there and a brush. There is a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you for what the job is worth.”

He said, “Fine. I will be done quickly.” She went back to her cookie making and didn’t think much more about it, until there was a knock at the door. She went, and it was obvious that he had been paint­ing. He had green paint all over his clothes. She said, “Did you finish the job?”

He said, “Yes.”

She said, “Did you do a good job?” He said, “Yes. But lady, there’s one thing I would like to point out to you. That is not a Porsche back there. That is a Mercedes.”

Christmas is a time of surprises and things that take your breath away. In fact, all of life can be. Don’t you think it’s a good thing? Most of us measure our lives by the breaths we take. Perhaps it would be better for us to measure our lives by the breaths we miss. It’s those times of amaze­ment and astonishment, when suddenly our attention is carried away, that God catches us by surprise. He takes our breath away.

The only problem is that some of us have too carefully ensconced ourselves in religious tradition to be surprised by any­thing. That had just about happened to Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were good people. The Bible says, “Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). Now that’s the profile of a very religious person. They went through all the right motions. They obeyed the Law. They were faithful in worship. They prayed fervently to God.

It is possible to settle into such a reli­gious routine that God has one tough time getting our attention. What would happen on a Sunday morning if Jesus literally walked down the center aisle of this sanc­tuary, sat on the top step of the platform and looked around. I wonder if we would recognize Him. Most likely, He would have been caught by a flying wedge of ushers before He made it down the center aisle. I have to admit that the ushers would only be doing what we’ve asked them to do. The last thing we want is to have a visitor disrupting our order of worship.

Now, I realize that it is quite unlikely that Jesus is going to physically walk into this room in the course of this worship service. The fact is, though, that Jesus Christ is in this room right now in the presence of His Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the very God of the universe, is an active observer of all that is going on in this room. He knows your every thought. He knows mine. He observes our yawns. He knows our fears. He is concerned about the health problems, financial needs and deep, aching loneliness that marks the existence of some. You name it, He is aware of it. And He wants to meet you at your point of need. He wants to surprise you with His joy.