These are such clear and beautifully crafted words it begs to be set to music. Through him all things were made without Him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We can give Him our heart and our hopes at this moment by giving attention to the opening lines of the Gospel of John. One way is that we give attention to John 1:1-14 (this post's Scripture) that explains why rugged shepherds and educated wisemen felt compelled to go to Bethlehem and fall on their knees before the newborn Jesus. We need a light to break through our darkness to show us a way, don't we? How can we push towards that today? Finally, we recognize that all is not what it needs or want it to be. We're trying so hard to push forward to joy, aren't we? Then it feels again, like a long, brutal, no end in sight kind of push. When we got home, we learned that the remaining performances had been canceled because COVID had surfaced among the actors and the stage crew Another reminder.
However, when we walked into the theater, I stooped down to adjust her mask and was reminded yet again that our world is not what we want it to be. We were eager to experience the same thing with her, just as we had with our son and daughter when they were close to her age. Recently, we took our six-year-old granddaughter to the matinee showing of The Lion King at the Orpheum Theater here in Memphis. We're reminded that things are not exactly the way we long for them to be. We are sitting in darkness, just as we do each year, trying to push through to goodness, beauty, and an idealization of our lives. If we're honest, we settle for the familiar and the predictable year after year, when the meanings to be found in Advent are inexhaustible and filled with powerful, life-changing truths.īut as this Advent begins, let's recognize where we are. But we're not sure what we're hoping for. We keep hoping that maybe this year it will be different. We become dreamy and happy because we immediately connect the season to good things, even if our past seasons of Christmas haven't been so dreamy and happy. We come to worship, we come to special Christmas events, and we sing carols. As we allow ourselves to settle, we become too easily satisfied with what we believe is the meaning of it all. But amid all the familiar scriptures and seasonal-favorite songs, there is a bit of a problem for us almost every year. This season points us to the unknown second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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