the advent of advent

i love advent. always have. when we were little, we marked it with advent calendars and an advent festival at our church. but what did we anticipate? a lot of presents, good food, and family... but mostly the first two.

as an adult, i am cultivating a new appreciation for and love of the season. moving far away from home has helped with this. advent has become hopeful expectation of a homecoming that accompanies Christmas. the love and quality time that comes at christmas, the reconnection, the re-cultivation of roots, for me it is a true experience of Emmanuel, because God is love... and home is love.

but this year i hope to go deeper still. i want to use the hopeful expectation, the energy that comes from anticipation to grow me closer to the God we symbolically wait for. i want to cultivate my sense of God around me and the ability to discern the Word made flesh.

some of this comes from feeling like i am in an advent season in my life. i am close to graduation, but am not there yet. i am getting closer and closer to the possibility of ordination, but at not there yet. i am growing in my leadership and ministry, but have certainly not arrived yet. not yet, not yet, not yet. but my life feels pregnant with hope for the future... and feeling i hope to learn to wallow delightfully in, rather than rush through.

and so, i point my face toward God among us and say, as Mary did in Luke 1, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me according to your word."