Advent...

Well, it's that time again...the season of Advent.  Yesterday we celebrated the first Sunday in Advent, focusing on HOPE. We also participated in the Hanging of the Green service at church which is always a time of celebration and anticipation as the church is decorated as a community of faith comes together to sing, decorate, and just fellowship.

Looking back at the last year, it has been full of change.  My sister got married two days after Christmas and we welcomes Henry James Taylor into our family at the end of September. Miley will turn 3 this coming Sunday.  Chris was deployed to the desert for 2 1/2 months.  Grandma turned 90.  We now have 84 ESL students at my school.  Change always comes, whether we are prepared for it or not.  I've caught myself saying this phrase a lot...."it is what it is."  Take it as it comes. Try your best to be prepared, but most of all, be prepared to just accept what is in the here and now.

As I think about Advent, the coming of Christ, I can't help but think of change and preparation.  Change must come in our hearts and minds if we are to be prepared for the coming of Christ.  I must move from a self-centered view of this season. I must accept what is in my life in order to see how God is (and has been) at work in and through me.  Think about the people of Israel in those days...they had been waiting a long time, anticipating a king that they could really get behind, a king FOR THEM, one that was on their side, advocating for them.  Don't you want the same thing?  We already have that. We serve a God who wants goodness for us.  We serve a God who already won the victory.  Are you afraid that God won't come to you?  Has bitterness gotten in the way?  Are you buried in a sea of grief?  Are you too busy to even look for the Christ child?  Read these words from Ann Weems...

"Our God will be born where God will be born,
but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
God will come
even to a godforsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem."

Open your heart and mind this Advent season.  Let a sliver of light in.  Pray for a softened heart to feel the anticipation of the season again.  And wait and see how God comes to you and to those around you.