"​​​​Advent -- Trusting the Love of God!"

One of the most helpful things with the Advent season, preparing for light in the growing darkness, is that it keeps us focused on hope when we might otherwise fall into despair!

Fearful times make it easy to self-isolate, to see others with suspicion, to close ourselves off from compassion and curiosity, but Advent looks at this increasing quiet and shorter daylight hours and courageously journeys into it all with a far-reaching vision of what is to come on the other side of winter!

We can receive this as the "literal light in the darkness" as we decorate our homes and add light to the Advent wreath each Sunday, but it’s more than physical light. It’s the light of gathered community, the warmth of God’s kin-dom which holds us through the cold, the shared meals making sure all are fed, the extra effort to wrap one another in physical manifestations of love, whether that be through socks and scarves and hats or cups of cocoa and tea! 

The world is scary right now, uncertain, unsteady, and it’s so tempting to keep to our own, close the shutters, hunker down and keep everyone else away until the winter storms pass. But in the dark and cold, isolation is how we freeze to death, how we starve!

Jesus comes into the world to bring us life, restoration, and healing, to restore us to our better selves and to one another as we look upon the face of God in a newborn and see reflected back to us the way that each of us comes into the world: helpless and totally dependent on those around us to keep us alive!

While the shadows of doubt and uncertainty creep in, when injustice and oppression tighten their grip, we survive best when we remember our wider community, when we reach out in sharing resources of time, energy, encouragement, and welcome!

Rather than turning against someone who has been labeled "other," rather than casting blame on those who are also suffering and struggling alongside us among the growing shadows, we take a deep breath together and look at the bright stars above, recalling to mind our place in the vast and miraculous cosmos!

Advent leads us through the mysterious wonder of finding ourselves wholly holy in the dark, of finding God present in the wholly holy dark, of resting with the cycles of the Earth and preparing those seeds deeply planted to bring forth new life in the spring! 

May this Advent season teach us lovingly how to trust that Love which promises to abide with us, always!

Grae and Peace,

Pastor Andrew Tobias Nelson