Advent
I was making the cookie dough when I heard the news. The Christmas plans were falling through, and it looked like the extended family wasn’t going to be together after all. Worse, it didn’t seem to matter to anyone but me. This news crushed me, and I could feel all my negative energy seeping into the cookie dough I was making.
Why should I keep making all of this dough? Christmas is just another day that will come and go like all the rest. If no one else thinks it’s important enough to share it with us, then why should I be putting all of this effort into it?
I kept working. And then, as quietly as a leaf falling, the idea of Advent came to me. I remember learning once that Advent is a time of waiting for joy to come. But more than just waiting; it’s expecting joy to come.
I sat with that for a minute. And a miracle came. Joy actually came into me, and I (who truly believe the sky is falling every minute) thought that maybe everything would be OK, if I let it. Maybe things weren’t going to work out the way we had all planned, but who was to say that was the worst? Who was to say it still couldn’t be joyful without them?
And, the most amazing part, was that this joy had no strings attached. It was in me, and it was no longer dependent on my Christmas plans. It was the “expecting” that made it all work together nicely.
If you don’t like what’s happening now, just “expect” things to change. And, just like the ocean tides, you know they always will.
“Advent is a time to rejoice with hope and expectation that what we say we believe will, in fact, be revealed in the ordinary and extraordinary moments of our lives.”
Ponder these words of Maria Harris:
Sisters, brothers,
Take your time, go slowly.
Listen deep inside yourself,
Simple things are holy.
Advent, a sermon
Meaning of Advent
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