Advent Reflection
As many of you know, my family roots are in Maine and Connecticut. The season of Advent always calls my heart back to the winter snow that is so much part of December in New England
As a young adult I was baptized on a dark night in December. Dressed in white from head to toe, I arrived at the church with God-parents and friends. I was so excited. I had waited for 8 years to be baptized and at long-last the night had arrived.
Waiting is not a simple task in our American culture of instant everything. For many of us, waiting implies there is something we can’t make happen for ourselves and so we expect a greater power to make it all happen.
Eight years was an eternity for a young woman only recently graduated from high- school. What would the future hold? What would this night hold for me? As my God- parents received the Christ candle they promised to hold the Light of faith for me. And then they entrusted the Light to me. I knew God had been waiting for this moment also. Waiting, not in a sense of impatience, but in a sense of Kiros, that sacred moment when God and the soul are one in timelessness.
We departed after the ceremony and walked into the gentle falling snow. A silence beyond any thought or gesture or word enfolded me. My soul understood that silence is the language of God, the language of love. That night I knew myself as loved so tenderly and gently that the whole of creation joined in that encounter of blessing through the falling snow.
Years later, we begin Advent again. No snow will fall in Texas, but Advent itself invites us into the tenderness of Love. We too are invited to gaze at the lights that fill our homes and burn within our hearts. It is Love that burns within us, silently glorifying God through tender moments of encounter.
Advent is counter-cultural. It is we who have to create those moments when we are intentional about being silent. I pray you will create those moments for yourself and your families. Sit in your home with gentle lights glowing, sit with someone you love without speaking, but perhaps just holding that person’s hand. For those who are in grief, sit in the grief and know Love burns within your grief. We are the Christ birthers today
The Spirit and the Bride say
COME!
