First Sunday of Advent - What are you waiting for?

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. In honor of the season, I need to begin my blog through Advent with a confession: With the rarest of exceptions, I haven't darkened the door of a church since late June of this year. To avoid boring you with the details of my year, allow me to simply say that it has been a time of great loss, grieving, questioning, and healing. Even though I haven't been in church, I have had a desire to blog through the season of Advent for several weeks now, and am embracing the next several weeks as a time of new beginnings for me...I am, I suppose, celebrating the new year a little bit early this year.

Perhaps you too have been through a difficult year, or perhaps you're in the midst of a difficult time as you read this blog...whatever the case, I hope you will find comfort in these writings, and more importantly, comfort in this special season of anticipation and hope.

I grew up in a non-liturgical Christian community, and have no memory of even hearing the word "Advent" until I was 14 years old. I was a precocious teenager, full of my own smarts, and lacking in respect for the wisdom of others...I still recall my first thought when I asked someone, "What is Advent?", and received an explanation... "That's weird," I said to myself. Ah...to be 14 again, and smarter than everyone else! Maybe you grew up in a church that taught about Advent, or maybe you didn't grow up in the church at all...whatever the case, I believe the season has valuable lessons to teach all of us.

The word 'advent' means coming, and in the Christian tradition, we use the term to refer to our celebration of the coming of Jesus at Christmas, and to our anticipation of his coming again in glory. I returned to church this morning, and the pastor talked about our eager anticipation of Jesus' coming. I couldn't help but think about the fact that most of us, especially children, spend a lot of time and energy anticipating the coming of Santa Claus, and not so much on the coming of Jesus. I also thought about the feeling that I believe is so common to many of us, in the space of time after we open our gifts and eat our big Christmas dinner... "Is that all there is?" Even as a teenager and young adult, I was painfully aware of the sense of disappointment that immediately follows after the gift-giving and reverie...Christmas afternoon and evening, for me, have always been a big let down, and I feel fairly certain that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Please don't get me wrong! I love Christmas, and I love Santa Claus too! I love the lights and the sparkle and the magic...the gifts and the music and the special Christmas food! But I also recognize that there can be a sad kind of emptiness in this joyful holiday season. Christmas without the abiding love of Christ doesn't have much "staying power." If we're to make our way through this Advent season with a joy that remains, I believe we need to learn how to eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus, and not just Santa Claus. As I travel my journey of grief and healing this Christmas, I'm praying for a heart that is open to His coming...and my prayer for you is that your heart will be open too.