Second day of Advent

The following is from a collection of Advent Reflections compiled by the Vancouver School of Theology community.   This exert is from Pamela Hawkins, Simply Wait: Cultivating Stillness in the Season of Advent.

With practice, I learned that if I just kept looking, patiently, I would almost always find a falling star.  Over time I learned from friends who had lived by the ocean longer than I that the likelihood of finding a falling star was greater in certain seasons of he year or in particular quadrants of the sky.  I learned that if I lay down with my head propped just right on Ray’s knee, I could wait longer and watch better.  I just had to let patience, desire, and practice teach me to be present to what was to come.

So it is with Advent and patience.  As we begin to watch impatiently for the light of Christmas, we have been given this stretch of time and space of Advent.  Here we are invited to grow in patience and to position our lives so that we do not miss what God is doing in the wide expanse of the world.

May we slow down, spread out our whole lives before God, and practice patient watching for where the light of God is falling.  May we catch a glimpse of this holy light of the lives and places in the world that need our attention and are 8illumined by God’s radiance so as to draw us near.  May we all settle into Advent with a deep desire to see and attend to what matters to God.

Benediction

May the Holy Spirit fall upon you.  Like a falling star, trailing across the dawns and dusks of your Advent living, may the Spirit mark you with light and point the way toward God-With-Us.  Be patient, draw close, for the Lord is very near.   Amen.

Posted by Dan Chambers