This would have been a major problem except that the moving company which so carefully loaded all our earthly possessions on to their truck a few days before has just informed us they have no idea where they are. But what I feel when I look at that picture of a disastrous day is my older son at 11 standing very straight for the camera and my younger son at 9 leaning against my side, tucked right in, just the right size. I can feel him just thinking of it. It is real. And we were going to be all right whenever they found the stuff and finished the house.
Significant events are times of remembering.
And Jesus came to the Temple in winter, at the time of the festival of the Dedication, John's gospel tells us. This feast of the Dedication was scarcely 165 years old at the time of Jesus, recalling the revolt of the Maccabees, the overthrow of the Greek rulers and the cleansing of the Temple. It was the time to remember that the oil which was only enough for one day lasted eight, that the lamps were kept burning through the provision of God so that worship could be fulfilled. It was Hannukah that had Jesus in the Temple that day, a time to remember what is important and come back into it. And they challenged Jesus with a challenge which strikes me as absolutely contemporary, as what we in our impatient, digital world might say.