Advent: What Are You Waiting For?

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Advent Reflection
Christmas Lights Reflected in Water and Moss by Eugene C. Scott

Advent is the word that describes an attitude of anticipation and waiting, recognizing two seemingly competing truths.

Advent is the beginning of a period of time: the four weeks and Sundays before the Christ Mass.  Christians have celebrated Advent for multiply centuries to celebrate that Jesus, a baby born in a manger, brought salvation and heaven down to earth.  The Kingdom is here now.

Advent is also a recognition that, just as we wait to open presents and feast on Christmas Day, we also still wait for the reality of Jesus’ salvation and Kingdom to come fully.

My friend Chloe Hawker wrote a poem, more like a modern prayer, expressing this idea.  Enjoy!

Late December Morning

“Portrait of a late December morning
etched in glass and ice
the air so still that your breath hangs in a frozen fog
suspended until the ringing of the cathedral bells shatter it
and it falls to the ground tinkling like crystals
a December morning so cold
that your nose loses feeling before you even have a chance to cross your threshold
the wind glitters in the trees
collecting crushed leaves like forgotten memories and swirling them around in the
still freeze that wraps itself around the old churches
time stops here
waiting
breath suspended
for the next moment that the world starts to turn again
and breaks itself out of this
December eternity
this December moment
in the late morning
when frost covers the earth in a thin layer of incredulity
and reality forgets itself
as it watches the stars spin about
and the impossible become slowly possible
in the thinning of the veil between worlds that December always brings
you never know what you’ll see this time of year
what you’ll hear
nothing is certain
December whispers that it’s the month of death
but it lies
December is month of waiting
hanging
suspended
outstretched millimeters from touching flesh
mouth open
breathing into what could be a kiss
in one interminable moment
of silence
as the world refuses to turn
refuses to advance to that next moment when
eternity will break into this dimension
shattering all our illusions so instead
the world
waits”

Photo by John Moyer
Photo by John Moyer

7 thoughts on “Advent: What Are You Waiting For?”

  1. Georgie-ann

    For all our common bravado and puffed-up ordinary self-assuredness-es, such an encounter with such a moment of clearly stunning cold reteaches us and reminds us about our contingent nature,… subliminally we know that without the carefully provided warmth of our houses and our external layers of protection from the elements, we would be mere moments from this grand unknowable eternity ourselves,… and in no uncertain terms,…

    2 Corinthians 4:6,7
    6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

    7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

    Our whole life is a waiting period,… truth be told,… Advent simply reminds us of this ever present and ongoing mystery,…

  2. JPMoyer MD

    I have an image that might good along with this amazing poem, but am a bit of a challenged older cyber gomer without “attachment” skills. Reading it I can feel the frigid temperature and hear the crunch under my feet. Maybe Eugene can get it on the blog if I send it separately by email…hopefully!

    1. Georgie-ann

      Great picture, John!,… Wishing you and yours a blessed advent!

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