Wednesday 12 December 2012

'Tis the Season!


Four of us were sitting around the table on Sunday evening, lamenting a little because of the Christmas “celebrations” to come. Not because of Christmas as such, but because of all the drama that usually accompanies the festive season – and if you’re not lucky enough to live in “Seventh Heaven”, you’ll know what I mean. Then someone mentioned that they have a friend, an outspoken atheist, who is more excited about Christmas and making it special than all of us combined. How strange…and yet not…

Christmas has become everyone’s special day, but for all the wrong reasons. For when almost all of us think about Christmas, we think about the logistics of the day and the gathering. We worry about what gifts to give, and we dreamingly anticipate what we might be receiving. On the day we might go to a Christmas service, or we might sing a few Christmas hymns and read the Nativity Story. But then it’s on with the busy rigmarole that Christmas has become.

Now, lots of churches have instated the celebration of Advent, with a candle being lit every Sunday of the month approaching Christmas. The whole service might even be centred on the theme that accompanies each of the four candles. But how much of that goes home with us? How much of that can be seen in our every day leading up to (and following) Christmas?

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before. What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God's [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running, for rushing, for worrying, for pushing. For now: stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.” - Jan L. Richardson


How much of what Christmas has lost is because we - those of us who believe there is a reason for the season - have lost focus. Have lost the spirit of hopeful expectation. Have given up on celebrating the promise that Christmas is. And so, let us approach Christmas with an expectant hush, rather than a never-ending last-minute rush. In this will our witness be found. Will it change the way the world sees and celebrates Christmas? Little by little, it might. Will it change us? Without a doubt!

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ.” - Casely Essamuah You keep us waiting. You, the God of all time, want us to wait. For the right time in which to discover whom we are, where we are to go, who will be with us, and what we must do. So thank you…for the waiting time." - John Bell