Here it is the middle of December and I’ve put nothing
about Advent or Christmas on this blog yet!
It’s been a strange season so far. A large part of me longs for the days when my
kids were little and the biggest question of the season was, “When can we open
our presents?” Although I hated that question when they were younger because I
never wanted Christmas to be about that.
So much feels in flux this year, and holds ambiguous waiting within it. I
guess that’s exactly what ADVENT is all about. - Waiting, unsure of the how, if
or when?
To appease our kids while they waited for
Christmas we used things like an advent calendar which held little surprises –
usually a sweet chocolate - for each day, or maybe a routine, like reading a Christmas
book every night before bed. Whatever it
was, it kept the fire of anticipation stoked, refocused their gaze and reminded
them that although Christmas is not here yet, it will be soon! They were too young to really know why it was
such a big deal that God showed up on the scene as a baby. They just knew Christmas was special - goodness
and love showed up for the day, and who doesn’t anticipate that?
To be honest, I don’t have much anticipation this
year. I feel caught somewhere between “Come
thou long expected Jesus” and “Deck these stupid Halls with stinking Boughs of
Holly” ….fa-la-la-la-la-la is about all I can come up with.
Perhaps in the chaotic suspense I've become numb and cynical. Its wearisome waiting for life to somehow make its grand appearance and certain things to
be made right…Waiting for direction, waiting for
relationships to be healed - ones that despite my best efforts remain as is.
Waiting to know if my dad’s stem cell transplant will work. Many of you, like me are waiting for things too sacred to share. Humorously, even our car is in flux as we wait
to find out if we can drive it come January, and if Volkswagen will correct
their rather blatant “oops” in their diesel vehicles.
In some form or another we all wait. It is the human condition. We “second-advent”
wait for God to bring our stories to completion in His. Stories that when we look too far ahead lack
direction…stories that are rendered incomplete and less than perfect for the
time-being, with chapters we would like changed. These are the stories Jesus entered in first Advent when he
took his first breath in a mucky trough.
They were "waiting stories" that long searched for deliverance. Yet God purposed the wait. He was preparing a people for himself - a people who did not know the when, if or how. As
Jesus came ‘in the fullness of time’, many could not discern his arrival. Only a few recognized the events as
sacred….they were the ones who kept watch and stayed patient in the long pause. They were the ones whose eyes may have been weary
yet they found a way to steady their gaze, open the windows of advent and taste
for a moment the sweet goodness to come.
How do you and I, in the midst of
sacred anticipation and chaotic distractions, wait well?
Isaiah 40:3-4 says to prepare a way for the Lord,
make a straight path, every valley be raised up and every mountain made low. There is a purpose in our waiting. This 'already - but not yet' life is preparing a way for Jesus if we let it. Mountains, valleys, crooked paths…these are
the things that inhibit our ability to receive the arrival of God. Pride shows up (as it did for the Pharisee) in
the high places causing us to look down upon fragile flesh. Shame finds secret refuge in the valley, mocking
our sacred self of all that needs redeeming and tells us we could never be worthy. In our waiting, we become bored and distractions
turn up to divert our path. We shift our gaze and try rewriting a chapters we don't like. But what if we stay…what if we stay long
enough through the boredom and the muck to let God enter our shame and love-level our pride? What if we let Holiness companion with us
through the crooked wait and discover the long awaited gift, the present, is actually his presence….
sight comes. A star high above appears
and journeys us further up and further in to the heart of God. Our story, swallowed up into His, is
redeemed.
So let us wait…let's crack open the door of our shame and let love in. It won't be pretty but through it God will birth beauty. Let's listen to our heart and own its arrogance that says, "I am better", and let;s fast from entitlement…lets look for windows
of goodness and love happening in the mucky ordinary…and let us ask the Lifter of our head to set our eyes to the sky to keep watch for the star... and we will journey – one step at a time – to Him.
"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along the way. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying got us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail of our lives of love for God is worked into something good." Rom 8:26-28
"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along the way. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying got us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail of our lives of love for God is worked into something good." Rom 8:26-28
No comments:
Post a Comment