It’s less than two weeks before Christmas. Have you noticed that there are some things that can only be found easily at this time of year, like slippers, the color red, and mint M&Ms? Seasonal items is what they are called in marketing terms.

Last Christmas, my husband and I discovered mint M&Ms. This fall, I started looking forward to the Christmas candy coming to our grocery store, even though we are not into candy much around here. Apparently there are others who were anxious for the arrival of this confection because after buying a bag around Thanksgiving, thinking I’d buy more later, I found none were to be had in any of my normal shopping haunts. Knowing the truth that “when they’re gone, they’re gone,” I decided while running errands last Friday to stop at every grocery store I passed. I even called my daughter, who lives nearby and who also loves this product, to ask her to buy me some; she said she couldn’t find them, either!

At my fourth stop, I entered another discount store and began wandering. Having not entered the doors of this establishment in years and years, I had no idea where their seasonal items were located. No clerks were available, so I hurried up one aisle and down another, searching. As my feet moved quickly, my ears slowly awakened to the music on the store intercom. It was a Christmas song, a hymn. Amazingly common this time of year in almost every venue, this tune was saying to every shopper in the store, “Jesus came for you. He is the King. O, come let us adore him.”

But no one was listening. Cart pushers in every aisle were distracted by their agenda. They had lists in their hands, things to get done. The call to the eternal was simply background noise, part of what is expected during the month of December. It’s as if all were deaf to the musical proclamation about the greatest news ever delivered.

It was a sad picture. As I got back in my car with no M&Ms, I imagined God the Father watching all of us in that store and the millions of others who ignore Him and the greatest gift ever given as if it was nothing but a nice story. If that. Yes, we have much to do — moms especially. I get as distracted and driven as anyone, but I realized in that moment that we in this country have the opportunity to be surrounded by the truth ringing in our ears for a month. For at least 25 days, we can walk in and out of most stores and hear the good news of the Savior who was born.

Jesus is everywhere. What a wonder!

May you hear the story and rejoice that you have ears to hear and that it is not yet forbidden to play Christian music during the Christmas season. Oh, and I did find the M&Ms on about the sixth stop.