Articles - From the Curate

The Season of Advent

Sunday the 27th November marks the start of the new Church Year and is also the beginning of the new season of Advent … which is a time of preparation and waiting expectantly for the birth of Jesus at Christmas … God showing His love for us by coming amongst us, to be with us, to share our lives and all that we experience, feel and are involved in.

Advent is an opportunity to think about what the birth of Jesus means to us … which means trying to take time out of the hustle and bustle of this time of year and to try and stop awhile and be still … I can hear the laughs from here as I write this…trying to find a bit of peace and quiet and stillness in this busy time CAN be very very hard to do … but I encourage us all to at least try … to try to use this Season just to stop for even 5 minutes a day and reflect on why we are busy, what is it all about … why we are buying presents, writing cards, organising lists and visits etc … amongst all of that, just 5 minutes thinking about the birth of Jesus might help us understand the reason for this Season a bit better, might prepare us better for God coming to spend time with each one of us, in our homes and in our lives.

One of the Church's strengths is its year being split into different Seasons, helping us focus on God in different ways and Advent is such a season. With its dark nights and mornings, comes the Hope of God's light, through Jesus' birth, coming into the world … into your life, into your home, into your family…

God wants to be with us amongst all the joy, the sorrow, the laughing, the crying, and the mess of the world:

And God held in his hand
a small globe. Look, he said.
The son looked.
Far off,
as though through water, he saw
a scorched land of fierce
colour. The light burned
there; crusted buildings
cast their shadows; a bright
serpent, a river
uncoiled itself, radiant
with slime.
On a bare
hill a bare tree saddened
the sky. Many people
held out their thin arms
to it, as though waiting
for a vanished April
to return to its crossed
boughs. The son watched
them. Let me go there, he said.
(by R S Thomas)

Can we spend a little time in Advent saying to him … yes Lord; I wait eagerly for you to come into my life …

'Maranatha - Come, O Lord!' (1 Corinthians 16:22)

God's peace and stillness be with you as you wait expectantly for our Saviour.

Diane

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