Advent Attentiveness

Even now it comes
In the face of hatred and warring
No atrocity too terrible to stop it
No Herod strong enough
No hurt deep enough
No curse shocking enough
No disaster shattering enough
For someone on earth will see the star
Someone will hear angels voices
Someone will run to Bethlehem
The Christ will be born!

Ann Weems

Who knows what the facts of Jesus' birth actually were? ……the Gospel writers are not really interested primarily in the facts of the birth but in the significance, the meaning for themselves of that birth just as the people who love us are not really interested primarily in the facts of our births but in what it meant to them when we were born and how for them the world was never the same again, how their whole lives were charged with new significance. Whether there were ten million angels there or just the woman herself and her husband, when that child was born the whole course of history was changed. That is a fact as hard and blunt as any fact.

        Frederick Buechner

Wilderness is the place of Moses, a place of no longer captive and not yet free, of letting go and learning new living. Wilderness is the place of Elijah, a place of silence and loneliness, of awaiting the voice of God and finding clarity. Wilderness is the place of John, a place of repenting, of taking the first steps on the path of peace. Wilderness is the place of Jesus, a place of preparation, of getting ready for the reckless life of faith. We thank you God for the wilderness. Wilderness is our place. As we wait for the land of promise, teach us the ways of new living, lead us to where we hear your word most clearly, renew us and clear out the wastelands of our lives, prepare us for life in the awareness of Christ's coming when the desert will sing and the wilderness will blossom as the rose.

        Francis Brienen