Welcome, Advent

Advent.  The season of waiting.  Something we aren't so good at in our day and age.  I don't like to wait for much.  I am a problem solver, solution seeker, get things crossed-off-the-list-maker, and I struggle in seasons where I can't see the forest through the trees.  I covet control and start to unravel when I can't make things go the way I expect or desire.  But the season of Advent shows us a different kind of waiting.  Advent is the rising action, the build up and anticipation of events that lead to the greatest story ever told, the climax of God's plan to finally rescue His people for eternity.  But what I love most about this story is that the events within it are far from a spectacle.  God's season of advent wasn't filled with what we make it today - big and glossy and loud and fast.  It was quiet and simple and messy and bursting with love.  

I started two Advent studies today, a simple study from All Things Good Collective I can do with Beau and the kids, and The Greatest Gift, by Ann Voscamp.  If I had any desire for this Advent season, it is the desire to feel it more.  To truly feel moved by the awe and wonder of what we celebrate at Christmas - God's deep love for us.  That's it.  I want my joy, generosity, and ambitions this season to be motivated by the right thing - not by my need to strive, or prove, check things off a list, or create pretty pictures, but by the love and joy we are gifted by the great giver of grace.  And if any writer is going to move me to feel this kind of love, it's Ann Voscamp!  

But just like God's plan to bring Jesus into this world wasn't the spectacle many would have expected, Ann reminded me of the most important part of God's plan.  Us.  His people.    

"Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot - yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root...In that day the heir to David's throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world.  The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place."

Isaiah 11:1, 10

Out of the heavy, burdened, sinful stump of our hearts, God grows a shoot, small but mighty.  And there, in the midst of a world of big and glossy and loud and fast, that tiny branch looks for the sun, hoping to grow and be watered and bear much fruit.  Ann writes: "Christ comes small, the miracle who comes in a whisper and says, Seek Me.  Just where you are, look for the small glimpses of God breaking in, breaking out, shooting, unfurling, bearing fruit, making a Kingdom, remaking the world.  Slow and still."

This is the mindset I want to have as I head into this season of Advent.  Eyes fixed on the tiny shoots in each of us - each a part of God's plan to build this kingdom through his beloved.  The simple moments of love gifted by a Father who deeply loves us.  The kids and their faces aglow on the trolley last night.  Skipping down the sidewalk with Mila as we proclaimed it was Christmas and joyfully sang Jingle Bells.  Our town's volunteer Buddy the Elf and the joy he brings on a Thursday night.  Text messages of prayer requests and reminders of the sweet community God has blessed me with this year.  A Matt Chandler sermon that makes me laugh and feel on fire for Christ at the same time.  All simple moments of love that bear witness to the truth - that small sprout of grace that started with a small baby in a manger.  

Wishing you a slow and simple Advent season, but mostly a season to recognize the shoot that springs up in you, the true source of all the beautiful moments that the holiday brings.

  

Pictures from a warm Black Friday afternoon where we walked without coats and threw potato flakes at each other.