I was called one day  to visit a parishioner, he had gotten worse and his wife was asking for the sacraments for him. I put the address in GPS and drove there. Their house is on the hill, and I had been there a few weeks earlier. When I arrived I was confused because their drive way was on the left side and I was almost certain it wasn’t there month ago. I rang the bell. Through the window I saw the living room. It too had changed a lot from my last visit. Somehow I had gotten to the wrong house I thought, but after few seconds the door was opened. An older man welcomed me, calling me by name. That confused me even further. However, he behaved as if he had been waiting for me. His wife brought me some cookies, and we prayed, I anointed him and gave them Holy Eucharist. But still something was wrong. They were not the same people I visited the last time but they said they had lived in that house for the last seven years. They knew me. They were our parishioners.

How could I have arrived at the wrong house if there were no other house? It was definitely that same hill which I had been on before. I kept asking more details. They eventually told me that I never been there before. I asked him if his wife had called me earlier that day but no, she would not have as she doesn’t speak English very well. Now, I’m sure I’m in the wrong place, but they were very happy that I visited them. I shared my doubts with them and asked them if their neighbors are our parishioners too. That wasn’t the case. They explained me that there are two subdivisions with that same name, but that one is “South” and the other is “North”. Otherwise they assured me, they are both identical.

Because this time I came from the north side, I arrived at the north end of the subdivision instead of south. That same house number, the same looking house, the same interior, and apparently it had happened a few times before such that people came to wrong house, so they were used to welcoming everyone.

I ate delicious cookies, prayed with them and went to visit second house.  Amazing!

It is a very interesting feeling to not know what is going on and yet pretend that everything is ok…AND it is O.K.!  God uses our mistakes to fulfill his plans, and God has a great sense of humor