As she finished mopping the floor, squeezing out the mop and emptying the bucket, the strangest words fell from her lips, “I’m so happy I’m here.” Her new boss looked at her curiously and said “really?” And she began to relate to him where she was just one year ago. Addicted. Homeless. Penniless. And mostly ALONE.
“What a difference of year makes! I’m clean and sober for the longest time I can remember. I have a place to live, a warm bed, and food. I have a job and money in my pocket. I have friends, people care about me and I care about them. And I’m four months pregnant and I know it’s going to be OK.”
This was not a bunch of Pollyannish words from someone oblivious to reality. These words were the bedrock of a reality that was so low at one point nothing could shove her lower. They were words of hope born of a reality as pregnant as her. She was worthy.
Advent is a time to recognize where we are RIGHT NOW—and an opportunity to remember WHERE we WERE! And where we are called to go. Past tense only serves to modify the present and encourage movement toward to the future.
Jesus Christ, only Son of the Eternal Father came then and comes NOW for us…in our unwillingness makes us worthy…in our sin…makes us clean…in our doubt gives us clarity….weakness, courage…sadness, joy…He was is and will be the answer to the question of our lives. “O God, who am I?” The voice of God answers with the WORD made flesh. “You are mine as HE is!”
But we forget don’t we? Life gets in the way. Schedules and deadlines, pride and position, greed or self interest, independence and individuality over the needs of the other or community. Our litany of selfish directions or good intention never fail (ironically the never satisfy either.)
As the first Advent was God’s journey toward us, today our Advent journey is multifaceted. Sure, it to remember the first, but it is recapture it NOW. It is to get ready, prepare all over again for Jesus to visit us… to be Emmanuel…to be teacher…to be brother and friend…to be messiah and savior of our lives…RIGHT NOW.
Then the words of Isaiah in the first reading of this first week of Advent become ours: “You, LORD, are our father,
our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways”
In order to get back on the path from which we’ve wandered, we need to examine where we are walking. What needs to change to stop the wandering and get back on the path?
Ask. Go deep. Meet God there. It is a time to be pregnant and unafrid and cry out: Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!