Happy Advent Season!

What a comfort to see the Advent candles at church yesterday!  Though much around us is changing rapidly, the recurring seasons of the church calendar provide a familiar frame of reference that links us to thed eternal.

My long time friend Peggy Hester in North Carolina writes an e mail newsletter several times a week.  Her thoughts on Advent were inspiring to me today, and I share them with you here:




Each morning this Advent I am reading a Bible passage on rejoicing. Today I began with a passage in Leviticus 23 that describes the establishment of the Harvest Festival for the Jewish people of God. This festival, Sukkot, follows the time of atonement, Yom Kippur, solemn high holy days. Each of these holy times carries an admonition to rest and a time set aside for rest. First worship, then rest, confess and make amends, rest, harvest, rest, rejoice. Each of these holy days carries with it specific instructions for rest. Wisdom knew our passion for being and doing, Energizer Bunnies that we humans are. And in that Knowledge, provided a resting place for our souls if we would listen and follow.

So first, worship. I will read Advent devotionals, the Bible and sing first thing each morning offering a small worship as a beginning to my Advent days. And in that time I will take a break, a rest from the busyness of my days, the unending to do list. I will rest in the Lord while I wait for the crocuses to bloom in the desert.

Second I will remember the year past, the mistakes, the sins, the blessings and the good work I have done. I will take inventory and lift it up to God as my part in atonement. Where there is a need to own my brokeness with others, I will speak and seek healing. I will affirm the goodness, the image and actions of God in me this past year as I do the same for others.

Third, I will harvest the past year of life reaping the joys and sorrows, the gains and losses with thanksgiving for it all. Without darkness we could not see the light and without suffering, we could not know joy. Gratitude for all that has come my way in life and gratitude for all that is yet to come will be my Advent prayer song.

Then I will rejoice like Snoopy dancing on top of his dog house, balanced between this world and the next, purely delighted to be here. Life is gift. Life is good. Thanks be to God for rest and rejoicing!