Christmas really is a short season, in part because we live as Easter people in an Advent world. We live with the truth of incarnation and resurrection – in a world that remains broken but where miracles continue to abound. This world has been gifted with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and still cries for reconciliation, for peace, for grace. It’s not a sin to be not ready for Christmas. It’s a reality – a real expression of where we are, who we are and what we are asking God to do in the world. When we take an honest look in the news of the world we say, “This is not what we hoped for.” This echoes what God is also saying to us.
No matter how early commercial Christmas begins, every day of Advent demands our attention. Advent means that God has not let our hope die. Advent means that we are waiting on the Lord, returning to the Lord, hoping in the Lord.
This message is excerpted from “Advent ache” by Julia Seymour in the November/December 2021 Gather magazine.
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