December brings us the season of Advent, when we are invited for four weeks before Christmas to live into a pregnant waiting, a time of reversals, an anticipation of the unknown, and a joyful preparation for the coming of the One who offers us a new perspective on life, a new way of being. Madeline L’Engle reminds us:
“It is the irrational season, When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason, There’d have been no room for the child.”
Traditionally, Advent was a deeply spiritual time in which the soul longed and waited for God’s coming. Yet often for us in our 21st century world, it is a time of frenzy, hurry, and unrealistic expectations of others and ourselves. Dare we as a community of faith offer an alternative to the frantic pace? Can we encourage each other to take time to ponder and pray, to wait and watch, to open ourselves to the ways Jesus may be coming to us in unexpected, unanticipated, unusual ways?
How do we usually think of God entering our lives? With a blast of thunder or in a blaze of light? Amazingly, God comes to us as one who is completely vulnerable, an infant in need of our love and care. Let us think of how Jesus came into a world in which there was no room for him, “no room in the inn.” How God entered the world at Christmas in the silent night, surrounded by animals to keep him warm in an insignificant stable. Will that help us wait and let go of some of our attempts to control and orchestrate everything in our day? Might there be room for God to break into our “perfectly controlled” Christmas and allow Jesus to surprise us with unanticipated joy? This “Word made flesh” comes as a baby unable to speak a word, able only to woo us to love him and not be afraid of holding him. God may show us a new way in which love takes the place of force, connection triumphs over “winning at all costs”, and less activity actually makes our lives richer, deeper, and fuller. Can we let this be a time of the “great reversals” into which God invites us?
May this Advent offer us the “infinite of the infant”, pondering that bright star that points us to this most unlikely place where “once for a shining moment heaven touches earth!” God enters through the very cracks in our “perfectly controlled Christmas” showing us love, kindness, compassion, and hope springing from the most unlikely people, places, and events to which we open ourselves, trusting God’s Spirit to guide us to our own Bethlehem.
May this Advent be a time in which we welcome the One who comes to free us from the tyranny of too many parties and overfilled schedules, from too much shopping, eating, drinking and general over functioning. May God surprise us again with an amazing grace that frees us from our demands and demanding Christmas, and instead releases us to go on our way rejoicing and sharing the Good News! Emmanuel! God is with us!