Advent is the season when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. In the world we live in it can be a busy and full time, with parties, shows and lots of shopping. It can be hard to find the time and space to watch and wait for signs that God is with us and to listen to the promptings of the Spirit.
In the Hebrew bible (also known as the Old Testament) many prophets write of their hope for the future and the redemption of all people.
The prophet Isaiah writes:
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Isaiah 40: 3-5
The painter Pieter Breughel the Elder painted the picture above in the late 16th century. It depicts the census at Bethlehem, where everyone was required to travel to their family home to be registered. He has painted it as a Flemish village in the 16th century, where everyone is going about their day-to-day life. Mary is wrapped up in warm clothes, riding on a horse, on the edge of the crowd waiting to be registered. We can’t see that she is pregnant, but we know that she is carrying Jesus within her prior to the birth. It’s very easy not to notice this with everything else that’s going on around her.
· Where might we find Jesus in our everyday life?
· How might we miss seeing or hearing him?
The poet U A Fanthorpe writes in BC:AD of the ordinariness of everyday life, and how we can still stumble upon the kingdom of heaven within this. Perhaps we can find time and space this month to wait with Mary and rejoice in the birth of Christ when he comes.
BC:AD
This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future's
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.
This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.
This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.