The following is a column submitted to us by Rev. Michael Tutton
It was a fortnight before Christmas and the team at Caring and Sharing Angel Tree food bank in Enfield were preparing the deliveries of food and gifts to bring joy on the Holy day.
To an observer (and volunteer packer), as I was that night in the Legion basement, all seemed to follow a scripted, ordinary routine, as well-oiled charities encourage.
But there are also strange coincidences that seem like, well, miracles.
Hold on, I’ll come to that. First, the ordinary and the orderly.
Volunteers were handed lists and then rolled carts through the aisles where the donated non-perishable foods and fresh produce were placed.
Then, it was on to the packing table, where I met Alasdair Graham and Sandy Ross carefully numbering each box and packing just enough so that people would be able to lift them.
Each detail mattered: Where you placed the number on the box, how you sealed them up with packing tape to prevent spillage, how you placed the eggs on top.
Graham, who lives in Lantz, N.S., said he’s been coming here for over a decade. “The numbers we have now have more than doubled. The needs have gone up and we’ve provided more food,” he said.
His wife, Margaret Logan-Graham, the vice president of Caring and Sharing, has duties that include filling out forms, organizing volunteers and talking to the clients.
The retired music teacher knows the value of an effective, smooth operation, especially as demand grows.
“We’re up to over 50 more families this year that we’re helping at Christmas time this year compared to last,” she said.
Each client’s carefully prepared gift boxes are matched with grocery orders of up to between $300 and $400.
Logan-Graham said Caring and Sharing does a survey every March and learns about why the needs are growing.
“The people say they’re not getting enough income to meet their needs, or their income assistance isn’t high enough,” she said.
The pickups officially end on Dec. 13, she explained.
But the calls still come and she and Pam Hutchinson, the Caring and Sharing president, do what they can to ensure people are still helped.
Which brings me to those occasions which seem out of the ordinary.
On Dec. 17, at St. Margaret’s Anglican Church, Hutchinson – who is also a church warden — told a small group how last-minute calls had come in for multiple families for gifts and groceries.
This costs money.
She wondered, how would this be covered? And then, a few minutes later, an unexpected email arrived, from a person offering to make a significant donation.
“It’s so, well … I can’t really explain it,” she said, lifting her arms, half looking at the ceiling.
A little miracle? A fortuity?
We do the ordinary things, the work we feel called to do. Logan-Graham and Hutchinson often are down at the food bank on Christmas morning packing the boxes, because that’s their role.
But then the unexpected breaks in.
One of my favourite theologians, Walter Brueggemann wrote a dense book called “Old Testament Theology.” It includes a wonderful chapter called “The God of Miracles and Order.”
He cites scripture to explain that most of the time the ordinary unfolds because, as Genesis 1 describes, the universe has occurred “in a life serving order,” with its predictable ways overcoming chaos. Thus, the hard, day to day work is critical.
But there’s also times when we’re not quite in control. Days like the one Hutchinson describes, when the divine breaks in, and manna falls from the heavens.
As Isaiah the prophet wrote: “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
In some ways, it was just as planned. “We don’t see people go hungry because it’s Christmas,” said Logan-Graham.
But these incarnations of love the Christmas story seems to produce can’t quite be tamed, can they?
(Rev. Michael Tutton is a former national journalist who writes about his new vocation as an Anglican priest. He is the rector of the Parish of Fall River and Oakfield.)