Advent – December 9, 2023

December 9, 2023

The Seventh Day of Advent

Yesterday I took a short walk around the block, just me, no one in tow.  The weather, for December 8, in Des Moines, was beyond pleasant.  The sky was blue, and the sun was shining.  This is a gift, I thought, as I ambled along, not one hurried step invaded my peaceful path.  Then I noticed a pregnant woman, walking on the other side of the street.  She too was taking her time, stopping now and then to notice a change in a neighbor’s yard.  Immediately my thoughts went back, thousands of years ago, to a young woman, who was living an ordinary life, possibly ambling over a meadow, or down a dusty path.  Her life was miraculously changed by a visitation of Archangel Gabriel.  And even with this incredible revelation, she held it all on her heart, and continued her everyday life, in a small village.  Such occasions probably happen to each of us, as we lead our ordinary lives.  Something miraculous occurs to rock our world, but within a matter of days, things go back to normal.  My intention is to ponder such visitations and revelations, to resist the temptation to move on as if nothing happened.  I am sure there are many such happenings in each of our lives.  I know such things have happened to me.  Well… maybe not an announcement such as she received, but miraculous and life changing, still.  I will not rest on what might be considered failure, in the past, but set my heart in the present, and look for that which comes to me, every day, in a most extraordinary way.  As we make the Advent journey together, perhaps you might consider doing the same.

          On this seventh day of Advent, 2023, the reading I have chosen is from Isaiah 11:1.

The Reading

December 9, 2023

 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”  Isaiah 11:1