Waiting November 19, 2011
Posted by lizp4 in Uncategorized.trackback
All of us started out exactly alike.
Most of us managed to live through all that to become, say, little kids, waiting for Christmas…
I know it’s just a commercial, but it’s probably one of the best ones I’ve seen in years. When did we change from being the kind of people who can hardly wait to give a gift into the kind of people who are sure they deserve more?
…and many babies don’t get to make it that far, if you get my drift. Next Sunday, the 27th, the Church starts the Period of Waiting, or Advent.
I wonder what to give the Baby Jesus on His birthday…?
Wow.
Remember when it was thirty years between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Now it seems like eleven minutes. How does that happen? Do we learn to compress the passage of time, or do we begin to move faster through it as we get older?
Definitely moving faster. By the time I reached my venerable years, I had mastered the art of having Sunday come nearly every other day. Seems like the weeks go by so quickly I hardly have time to take my coat off and it’s time to leave for church again.
I can remember sleeping in my robe and slippers so I could leap out of bed first of all. (There were five of us kids. Lots of competition.) Having Christmas in Juneau/Douglas Alaska during WW II was also a unique experience. We weren’t poor, but there was simply not that much to buy. Most Christmases I remember in the period were homemade.
Correction duly made. I realized as I looked at the calendar that I had the dates mixed up, and found your post even as I was making the correction. Good to see you!
Yes, Advent is a special time of waiting and preparation. A good time for spiritual house cleaning. I try to keep up with it through the year, but when Advent comes, I realize I have missed a lot of little nooks and crannies.
It’s been pretty cold for the last week, and it looks like at least another week of it, but we are as prepared as we will ever be. We got over a foot of snow a couple of weeks ago, so it looks pretty while it freezes us to peoplesicles. It was -11F when I got up this morning.
Actually, next Sunday, which would be tomorrow, is Sunday Next Before Advent. Advent does not begin for another week yet (unless you Byzantine Catholic follow some really strange Kalendar!)
The season of Advent is a period when we look forward to Christ’s coming, both His First Coming at Christmass, and also His Second Coming at the end of time. Advent definitely has this sort of eschatological focus, as well as the more immediate Christmass focus and we must be careful not to miss either.