I was just about to be at the “Dancing through Life” part of the movie, and yet I had an exit plan, meeting the roadside assistance tire repair person outside the theater, and plans to come back in, as I had already chatted with the ticket taker. Plus we took out the spare tire from the trunk in preparation, before going into the movie, and I had already told the tow people that I was in the movie. Seamless plan. Worked out great, had a plan, they knew the drill, so even on Christmas Day in the cold, it was like “Dancing through Life”… all OK… On the donut spare tire now, taking to the shop later today (it was a nasty pothole just before the theater and thankfully we have tire insurance, that plus roadside AAA is so convenient, pays off in emotional calmness for situations). Blessed.

And later now, I was thinking how I (we) escaped into movie land, knowing both the whole storyline in advance AND I certainly will see this movie version again to fill in the missed scenes. It was fine, escaping life for a moment in the movie and also capping off a great day of Christmas home-body joy. Dinner was prepped, eaten and stowed away in the fridge… Good food good people good day, a satisfaction of a finished Christmas prep too.  Check Christmas pressure off my list, DONE. So, FLAT TIRE? A mere minor blip in the day. A slow decompression of a leaking tire like my breathing relaxing…. But a tire? Convenient chaos? It’s like knowing the movie in advance that you can anticipate the scary bits and be OK. So, an adventure of teaching today (my youngest’s car, his education), convenient as we both have the day off and an oil change scheduled, hmmm pre-convenient, hmmmm…).

Life has flat tires, but our emotional comfortable confidence to keep moving forward is OK. Insurance pays it forward. Life experiences prepare us. We will be OK. Keep moving. 

Let me SWITCH to a separate thought and situation, an unexpected jolt I got 2 days before Christmas, I had learned of an unfortunate passing of a church friend in October, just heard of it now, so strange not to be in the loop then, so thetefore I can not process it now, but will. I was not in the mix of it, oblivious, and another friend, whom I also had not seen in months at my old church, was shocked that I didn’t know. But most there didn’t know until later either. We are curious how she passed, what happened with her cat, of which she sent me a cute fall photo where the cat adopted the table centerpiece. Cute. Our “aged” friend was in “decent enough” health just a week and couple days before she passed, when I had seen her last. So on that day we had gone to a renovated nature trail space, and I mentioned I was going to another friend’s church festival just after, a friend who had suddenly died earlier that year. Hmmm…  it was a text message conversation after the nature walk, so I knew the last time I saw her, and it was not unusual for us to not chat for stretches of time. I don’t know her family well either, no connection there. Hmmmm…. (God bless her family, surely in shock.)

In processing hindsight, I’m glad that my friend was in a GOOD PLACE WITH THE LORD and she had an EXIT STRATEGY of TRUSTING THE LORD for all the next steps of LIFE, no matter our ages. A month away from a milestone birthday, she surely had thought about it, even if surely the quickness of it was not in her foresight. What about her stuff? Well, she won’t worry about it now, new life “with her Jesus”. (Prayers for her family for sure, and yet my friend is set in Jesus’s arms).

We know that the Lord is not just “LIFE INSURANCE” – saving us forever – He is also “ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE” – comforting us along  the way – paving and paying ahead too. We can stay calm.

It’s like that backlit EXIT sign at the theater, there’s a plan to get out, there’s a world out there to ignore for a moment, an hour, a day – And there’s JOY on earth knowing Jesus came to make the Way AND show the Way. 

In the movie I was watching, the wizard was no wizard, he had NO exit strategy nor ability to get the characters through the movie chaos. But OUR LORD??? Not only does He know the EXIT STRATEGY, He IS the EXIT STRATEGY, and Jesus IS the road to travel on too, every step. 

Not “follow the yellow-brick road” but “FOLLOW THE JESUS-LAID ROAD” – that should be our life song.

EXIT STRATEGY? Check that off the Christmas list!

DONE 

Thank you Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. 

Amen 

(Praying for you all to have had a peaceful Christmas appreciating Christ.)