Earth Advent: Watching the Ground, Waiting for Light
Advent for many of us is a time to prepare for Christmas. In our homes we might get an advent calendar or have family traditions. We might start shopping for gifts and planning holiday gatherings. In our faith communities we might light candles, or read certain passages and maybe we will talk about waiting. Waiting in the dark, waiting for the light, waiting for the good news to be here, now. All this is good.
But more than being the things we do to mark a season, Advent is a formational time. We mark it with activities that hopefully help shape us into people who wait, who yield, and who participate in this story of barren women, old prophets, occupied peoples, strange dreams and babies being born. The Advent story of waiting is not one of peaceful resignation of meek young women. It’s a story that demands we take seriously honest questions, hard to believe wonders, unexpected people. We wait in Advent, in all the ways we do, for what we could never expect. We wait for a page to turn; for a long needed future to break in on our own shores.
Advent is discontent. It will not leave things unchanged. And we can mark it in such a way that we cultivate the ground, in ourselves and in our communities, that could bear the fruit of “God-With-Us.”
This year I wanted to connect the land I love and need, here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, to these bible stories of active waiting in Advent. I’ve written short devotional for the 4 Sundays before Christmas. Each one is a small story of noticing the earth under our feet that hopefully will help lead us to encountering the land and the Christmas tale both anew. Because we need a transforming encounter with both. Both the land and the christmas stories can too fast become useful commodities. But they are meant for our healing and they both can transform us - if we let them.
Advent is a season that knows something major is going to happen. But in the true up-is-down fashion of the gospels, it’s not a signal to activate. It’s an invitation to go slow enough to notice what is happening right before our eyes. And see where the light is coming from even there.
Feel free to download the Earth Advent devotional below - share it, subscribe here if you like. But mostly hear the invitation that Advent is holding out to you this year. May you be surprised by what finds you.