“By deliberately attaching our given days to
their holy antecedents, we are able to glimpse an eternal significance embodied
in our every moment—redeeming our days from what might otherwise be a
melancholy emptiness.”
-Scott Cairns
This is the first time that I have fully celebrated advent,
and it has dramatically changed how I’ve approached the Christmas season. In the past, December has always been a
joyful month, but mainly in anticipation for Christmas celebrations with
friends and family. All focus
during this time of year is typically spent in preparations for these
long-awaited gatherings set in glittering and spotless homes of the finest
hosts. My eager self spends the
month constructing gingerbread houses, baking cookies, and driving all over the
congested parking lots of high-end shopping centers and Target stores in search
of the perfect gift. All reflections of Bethlehem and that holy night are
pushed aside, only to be forced back into my mind on Christmas day, when it
seems most appropriate. Of course,
by the time December 25’th arrives, I’m so emotionally exhausted that I can’t
bring myself to reflect on the wonder of a Christ child in a waiting world. By January 1’st, I find myself sitting
in a room of new gifts, overcome with guilt, wondering how I managed to avoid
Jesus another Christmas season.
This holiday season, I’ve been reflecting on Jesus
everyday. It hasn’t been some sort
of pious praise fest, in which I claim to be overjoyed each day. However, it has been a month of
thinking on God’s promises. I’ve
been struck by how good God is to follow through with his promises, even if they
aren’t fulfilled the way I’d anticipate. That’s nothing new—even during the
time of Christ’s birth, mankind has been assuming that they know when, why, and
how God will fulfill His plans. A
humble child is certainly not what Israel had in mind.
My advent readings have also gotten me thinking about the
theme of waiting, which is something I find myself doing a lot here in
Mundri. I wait for meetings, for
people, for seasons, for change. I
tend to approach waiting with a negative attitude, given over to frustration
and discontent at what is yet to be.
However, I have been learning to be content in waiting, to find joy in
the hope of what is to come. Before
Christ’s birth, the world waited in eager anticipation for the coming of the Savior
king. They experienced “the
paradox of joy, in the midst of desire,” because they trusted in God’s promises. This posture of hopeful waiting has
given me patience to endure those everyday trials—the lesson plan that flops,
the miscommunication in the market, the setbacks in knowing and understanding
the people here. The prophet Isaiah tells us that, “those who wait upon the
Lord will renew their strength.” If that’s the case, then the people here in S. Sudan are
certainly building up their strength each day.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
-Psalm 27:14
If anyone is looking for a good advent book for next year, I highly recommend
God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of
Christmas
Ed. Greg Pennoyer/Gregory
Woolfe
