Pregnant with Possibility

I suspect that I am one of the few people who love the short days and the early nights. Ever since I was a little girl, I have yearned for the darkness and silence of December evenings. The dark is luscious, rich, deep, and I feel enveloped and held by it.

It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I became aware that the time of early darkness coincided with the season of Advent. Suddenly, my love of the darkness made sense to me. I am such an extroverted personality – and I have been all of my life – that it is difficult for me to be still, to wait, to be contemplative. As the darkness creeps in around 4:00 PM, I can feel my body go quiet and still. Without willing it, without any work on my part, I find myself still and waiting.

I know now that what I wait for in the stillness is the fullness of God to grow within me. For me, the darkness is pregnant with possibility and hope. As I rest in the silence, God’s voice gets stronger within me. My deepest yearnings surface and I find myself looking at my self and my gifts in new ways. I see the world more clearly and I begin to puzzle out how God might be asking me to make a difference, to contribute more to the world around me, to be a light that shines in the darkness. The themes of Advent echo through the darkness to me in an almost embodied way. I feel the rhythms of new life pulsing inside me. It is holy time. Advent is a 'waiting" time - a purple season when we prepare for the coming of Jesus. We remember God's coming to us in the form of the baby Jesus and we await the day of Jesus'coming again. In the words of the new song the children are learning this year, we, "Get Ready!"

This Advent, I invite you to let the darkness envelop you and your family. Rather than try to cram as much as you can into the holiday season, let the early coming of night wrap your family in a cocoon. Light your Advent wreath at dinner, hold hands as you pray together and linger a few moments before dashing off to making lunches for tomorrow, catching up on email/voicemail and starting the kids off on their homework. Just rest in each other and the candles glow. Don’t direct the conversation or feel like you must accomplish anything productive. Just BE together and let the Holy Spirit fill you and yours. Wait. See what happens. Something new will come of it in God’s time.

Faithfully,
Elizabeth