"The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah." - Jeremiah 33:14
Today, , marks the beginning of the Christian liturgical year. I have grown to love Advent over the past several years, yet somehow most of my affection for this expectant season seems to be predominantly based on intuition. I know I like Advent, but I'm not entirely certain why.
So this year I plan to devote myself to an informal but purposeful study of Advent, a season pregnant with beauty and profundity. As such, I'll be blogging semi-regularly on the topic throughout the next month.
In the book (ht: ), the Advent devotionals are prefaced with these words:
We start a new liturgical year by entering this complex season of mystery. We turn once again to the beginning of the great Story but with its glorious end very much in mind. With ancient Israel, we long for the one who will come to set us free. We try to get ready. We watch for his arrival with expectancy. We let hope gestate within us. Something good is happening to us and to our world. The days are dark but the light is growing. Sometimes we sing, sometimes we groan. We resist the cultural frenzy with chosen restraint and moments of retreat. That's how we remain alert, how we stay open to God's presence. We wait for Christ to come, and in our waiting, we are enlarged.1
The last line is a reference to Eugene Peterson's beautiful translation of :
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Already you can see that there is a lot to unpack and explore, and I hope to do that in the coming weeks. But here's the deal: For those of us who spend a significant amount of our time in front of a screen -- computer, cell phone, television, etc. -- our attention spans are . So in order for us to truly embody the season of Advent, a time defined by waiting, we must turn against our own instincts and re-learn what it means to be still. To wait.
It is my hope that in this humble exploration of Advent both you and I become enlarged in our waiting.
- Gross, Bobby and Lauren Winner. . City: IVP Books, 2009. 48. [↩]
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