Advent Outside

This is my third Advent/Christmas season since retirement but the first when I didn't have a sense that I was supposed to be doing something --many things -- for which I was responsible but not prepared. And I have enjoyed the contemplative nature of Advent which was never possible in the midst of so much planning and doing. Some years I thought I was well prepared only to be faced with a funeral or three. Alas, deaths can't be scheduled without the prospect of criminal charges.

I've been thinking about the lovely little book, All Creation Waits, as we have bundled up and  rambled about during the past few weeks. Here is what I offered back in 2016, my last Advent before retirement. I'm pleased that my perspective has changed. 

Sunday, December 04, 2016

All Creation Waits in Advent

This is my 37th Advent Season as a worship leader and yesterday I admitted to our son Isaac, also a United Church minister, that "the thrill is gone." Actually, Advent has never been that exciting a time in the church year for me. For all the talk of anticipation of the coming of the Christ there is a certain pensiveness to this season.  And I don't like this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is just too dark and gloomy and I can hardly wait for the Solstice so that the daylight will begin lengthening, inching their way toward summer fullness.



Each year I look around for resources that are fresh and offer a different perspective and the book All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings does just that. Boss created her own Advent Calendar for her children years ago, with each day a reflection on a creature. Now she has penned a book with beautiful illustrations by David Klein. Her introduction to Advent is excellent, and the descriptions of the various creatures in winter are informative. Here Boss describes the one of the first creatures from twenty years ago:

I drew a turtle behind the door of December 1 because, days before, my son’s godmother had sent me her meditation on turtle as a symbol of the soul in its dark season. And because I knew my son, like all children, liked pictures of animals.

Thanks to Boss and Klein for this lovely Advent gift. Next Sunday which is Advent III we'll hear from Isaiah about the blooming of the desert, so this book may become a sermon illustration!