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“With advent season in full swing. I can’t help but look at all the different Advent calendars. I mean, growing up there was a $1.99 chocolate one from Aldi that I think my parents occasionally got us. We also had a beautiful wreath and lit one candle a week, on Sundays, and excitedly lit the Christ candle in the center on Christmas. Now adays, you can get a nail polish, wine, cheese, Barbie, Hot Wheels, and even dog treat “advent calendars.” And with all these "tools” to help us countdown to Christmas, I can’t help but find myself thinking, “what are we counting down TO?” “What are we waiting FOR?” Are we counting down the days until we step into “the perfect Christmas”? You know, the one we see in all the Christmas catalogs flooding our mailboxes, the one with the perfect family with multiple generations smiling and getting along- all seemingly consumed by the joy that surrounds them?!! Maybe Christmas is a painful time, one that opens wounds that can be hidden in plain sight at other times of the year. Maybe you’d rather have an “advent calendar” that jumps to the New Year- where people start looking ahead, rather than reminiscing on the past- past hurts, past Christmases that just didn’t go as planned, past pain.
As these thoughts swirl in my mind tonight, I must stop and pause. Pause and recenter. Pause and regroup. Pause and PRAY. Pray that whatever we are “doing” to count down, that we are counting down to “God with US.” God with us in our imperfections. God with us in our pain. It is through Him, the giver of hope, of light, of love- that we may find JOY. And as we light those candles on our advent wreaths, may we allow ourselves to feel- wrap ourselves in the LIGHT of that beautiful baby in the manger so that we can reflect it to people and places that desperately need to feel its warmth.”
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