Well, here we go.

I try not to listen to Christmas music in my office during Advent, but the season is contagious and I have caved. Sufjan Steven’s Christmas Album is booming while I write this, and my soul seems to be trying to escape the chrysalis of preparation that is Advent, so it can go and revel in the world that has been leaving us waiting.

We have been taught by Matthew and Luke and two thousand years of discernment that this joy and anticipation we are feeling is the coming of the incarnation of God. The same God we see in Genesis 1 now dwells among us, and we are known and loved. The fabric of how life works has shifted. We don’t have to understand it in order to feel it in our bones, and we are compelled to hang boughs of holly, kiss under evergreen parasitic plants (mistletoe), and exchange gifts in a brightly colored paper in a world that demands a palette of grey.

The very world is changing. It is not bright yet, but it is getting brighter, and suddenly I feel that I can endure anything. In the coming months that are dark, and the unknown challenges we have yet to face, do not forget to revel in the world that is waking up. Show the darkness that it has no hold over your soul by waking up to usher in the light.

Merry Christmas.

Blessings,

Nick