Waiting
Excerpt from Hosea 6:1-6
“Let us press on to know the Lord; [God's] appearing is as sure as the dawn.”
Reflection by William C. Green
Kathleen Norris writes, “None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives.”
Advent is about awaiting the new life signaled in the birth of Christ. It’s about becoming available for something new. It’s about not rushing from the dusk of our customary thoughts to the dawn of some preconceived possibility as though the night is too scary or depressing, and has nothing to teach us. It’s about learning not to be afraid of the dark and instead wondering with an open mind. An Advent hymn says it well, “Watcher, tell us of the night, what its signs of promise are.”
Jesus comes as the promise of light at night. He was born at night. And that’s where his spirit meets ours. I can’t say what this will mean for me, much less for you. But Advent asks that we face any night within or around us, and come to see it as the birthplace of unexpected opportunity “just around the corner…waiting to change all the tenor of our lives.”
Prayer
O God, save us from impatience that jumps to conclusions about the future and misses signs of promise amid whatever makes us afraid or doubtful. So may we await the birth of new life in the spirit of Christ. Amen.
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