Advent is About Love

I am part of a liturgical church. Advent, the weeks before Christmas, is a time of new beginnings and getting ready.

It begins in small ways. We strain to listen to its first whispers. Advent grows steadily, one candle at a time, and the glow spreads from week to week. The light and the life of Advent spread one person at a time as we reach to share our true light and life with each other.

Our time of preparation and anticipation is rushing to completion. In a few days, Advent will have done its work once again. Our annual cycle of life and growth is well on its way, and a new tide of love is breaking on the beach.

The waiting and anticipation, the preparation, is almost too much for us. Like a baby ready to be born, love is kicking and pushing to break out into the world. It is almost time, and holding it is a challenge.

Love, like childbirth, is painful and messy. Love changes how we understand everything. Love brings new life into the world. Love gives us new reasons to live. Love is unpredictable, always a surprise.

Love breathes into us, and love makes us scream at the top of our lungs.

All of Advent is about love. We are distracted and, one day at a time, one candle at a time, Advent draws our attention to the love that surrounds us. We hear the murmurs, we begin to see the glow, we feel the pulse of life, all of which remind us that love is with us. We have a few weeks to anticipate and prepare. We remember the ocean of love in which we swim, and we ride the waves toward what the future holds.

Where is Advent drawing your attention?

How are you being born this year?

[Image by hummanna]