Meditations During Advent - A New Day

When I was a little girl, I eagerly awaited the time when the Advent calendar appeared. This is a photograph of that calendar. Advent calendars originated in the early 20th Century in Germany where this calendar was made. My calendar is over 65 years old; some of the doors are missing showing that it has been well loved and used. I hope you can zoom in on your computer to see the details. This calendar has a Hansel and Gretel theme with all sorts of trolls and cherubim and animals outside the candy house that Hansel and Gretel are preparing to enter. The calendar is detailed and glittery, with 24 numbered doors, one to open each day of December leading to Christmas Eve. Behind each door is a picture; many are toys. Finally on Christmas Eve we opened the double doors to the house and reveal the Holy Family. Even though we knew what was behind the final door, it was always exciting to open those doors. The anticipation and excitement of the Advent season was enhanced by our Advent calendar.

Advent is a time of opening doors and lighting candles to mark the time until Christmas, the celebration of the incarnation of the divine in the form of Jesus. The word “advent” is derived from the Latin word for “coming.” It is the beginning of the liturgical year.

As I was musing about the Advent calendar, I wondered what it would be like if we were as excited everyday as we are during the days of Advent to open the door on a new day. What if every day when we awakened, we approached the day as a surprise to be opened with wonder, and joy, and a sense of anticipation? What if we could fully live in the present?

We human beings tend to live our lives either rehashing the past or planning the future so that sometimes we forget to live and savor the day, the hour, the moment that is right in front of us. Advent is a season of anticipation, but Advent also calls us to silence, to being fully present in the now. It is a time at the beginning of the church year to pause, to find a quiet spot and breathe deeply and be present to the Divine. Advent is a time to open the door to each new day as a gift from God and to put aside worry and be fully present in the joy of a new day. This Advent during your daily quiet time, you may wish to meditate on these words found in Matthew 6: 30-34 from Eugene Peterson’s translation “The
Message.”

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

I want to end with a poem from A Book of Blessings by the Irish poet, author, philosopher, and priest John O’Donohue. The poem is titled “A Morning Offering” and speaks to being present to each new day.

 

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

- The Rev. Kristi Neal, Deacon