Christmas specials are filling the television schedule. Frosty, Rudolph and the Grinch have all made their appearances, PBS stations are abundant with concerts, and regular story lines are set aside or interwoven with holiday themes on our favorite sitcoms and dramas. A friend of mine came by last week so we could double-dose on our mutual favorite, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," in the 1964 original puppet version. Unfortunately, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," another favorite of ours, had seen one too many rounds through the VCR and wouldn't play for us that night. However, my video rental store is a kind and gracious establishment, and I was able to exchange my friend the Grinch for another favorite, "Under the Tuscan Sun."



Perhaps you saw "Tuscan Sun" when it first came out a few years ago. Diane Lane stars as Frances Mayes, a middle-aged woman who finds herself divorced, on a ten day vacation in Tuscany, and drawn to purchase and renovate a run down villa. She can't return to her old life in San Francisco, and as she tells her realtor, as they conclude a snake hunt in her house one afternoon, she is tired of being afraid all the time. But she also concludes that she has purchased a house for a life she doesn't have. What if no one ever sleeps in the three bedrooms? What if there is no one to cook for in the kitchen? Frances wants a life that fills her home, a wedding, a family, and people to cook for.

If you know the film, you also know that, by its end, Frances has all her desires fulfilled. She realizes that her construction crew would love and appreciate her cooking, and so she cooks magnificent feasts as they help her manifest the house of her heart. Her pregnant friend, Patty, shows up unexpectedly one day, having been abandoned by her partner and seeking solace. The baby comes, and a family becomes a part of Frances? household. One of Frances? Polish construction workers falls in love with a local woman, Frances stands by him as his family, and ends up hosting the wedding reception in her garden. It is her wise friend and former realtor who, smiling broadly, reminds her of her wishes, and how they have come to be. She smiles with him and delights in the abundance of love and community around her. As the the film closes, Frances? calmly amazed voice lightly dances over the image of friends, family, and a new love, gathered around her dining table in joyful celebration, telling herself and us that, "Surprisingly, good things can happen, even late in the game."

What I love about the movie is that Frances learns to let go of her fears, make mistakes, and live through them, as she engages her life where she has planted it. She also does something that may seem contradictory to what this Advent season is about: she sets aside her expectations, and instead she realizes her hope. Although Christmas is, according to our scriptures and hymns, about expecting Jesus? arrival, we are very good at attaching all our ambitions to this celebratory event, rather than really considering what God's love manifested among us implies. The populace around the birth of Christ shared our propensity to hook their images of the Messiah into events occurring around them, and weren't aware of how God With Us actually showed up. It happens, especially when we don't engage the life we have been given, imagine its possibilities, and remain open to them when they arrive. While Frances could have taken different turns and been someplace else, she recognizes that what appeared to have been gone forever was brought back to her in ways she ever expected.

As part of her Italian journey, Frances comes to an acquaintance of Mary, Jesus? mother, through the religious culture that also surrounds her. A friend of mine, preaching an Advent sermon many years ago on Mary's perspective on bringing the Christ child into the world on God's behalf, pointed out that Mary's road through this experience almost cost her her husband, her reputation, and could have cost her her life. But, what appeared to have been taken away was brought back to her one hundred times over.

Surprisingly, good things can happen, even late in the game. And sometimes the hope and the expectation converge in one, grand event that takes generations to live out and comprehend.