This is Advent

I am mindful that this year Advent begins against a sweeping backdrop of pain and brokenness. It seems there are few places in our world that have not been touched by violence and injustice. And our hearts ache. Sometimes the ache feels unbearable. Our first and most basic reaction is to silence or dull the ache.

But we are meant to ache, because things are not as they are meant to be.

We are meant to anticipate. We are meant to long for more than a hope built on social constructs and solutions. The darkness of our world invites us to live attentively…hopeful…to long for…to all the ways that Christ comes to us and offers healing not only to us but to our broken world. THIS is Advent…

So in our sojourn toward with Christmas, may we recognize it is into this darkness the Light comes, and breath the words, “Come, Lord Jesus.”