Alert, Quiet, and Expectant

“...After centuries of expectation, even after Scripture after Scripture foretold him, even after Gentile scholars knew to look for this King from the East, still, Jesus slipped into the world with such gentleness that most missed him. He won’t crash our parties. He waits for us as much as we wait for him. And in that expectant hush of Advent, we will find him, even if the quiet is only in our hearts.

Even more, the leaning towers of the cities of our souls must sometimes be leveled in order to see him in the sky, just as in Jerusalem the old makes way for the new.

Every temple we’ve built around sin must be torn down for the coming of Christ. We allow ourselves to be conquered by love and submit to the sufferings such surrender brings. It’s beautiful, this season of waiting, but it’s meant to sting a little, too. Waiting and longing is meant to be a type of purifying. The entire feast of Christmas itself will be that much sweeter after a bit of sacrifice — when our senses aren’t dulled and drowsy by months of merry-making.

Christ came to us, emptying himself. We must come to Christmas the same way.

Lord, help us live Advent with hearts alert, quiet and expectant.”

~Claire Dwyer