Advent: Hurry Up and Wait

 

We met a couple from Switzerland during our September vacation on the Azores. One of them has been visiting with us while picking up a magnificent hand-crafted musical instrument built by a luthier in Montreal. We've been apologizing for what has been a gloomier-than-usual November, although he assures us that this month in Switzerland is no prize. Getting out for a walk has been a challenge thanks to the incessant drizzle, yet time outside is essential in a season when we can feel "confined to quarters."

As we begin Advent my mind casts back to comments about the season I wrote a couple of years ago, and I'll share them with you again:

 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!