Advent – Three Candles – December 18, 2023

December 1, 2023

The Sixteenth Day of Advent

Each day I light the candles on the Advent wreath I think of those of you walking through Advent with me, and it brings me great joy.  The closer we get to the date we celebrate The Birth my heart opens to the young woman who said, “yes.”  And this “yes” was not to something simple, or merely challenging.  She said, “yes” to the angel of God, Gabriel.  And we are told she also added, let it be done unto me according to thy will.  Wow!  When I was a child I remember thinking, of course I would say yes.  Who wouldn’t?  But that child me did not yet know that in saying yes, Mary was risking everything, all she knew.  She was giving all of her.  Now, many decades later I know what her yes meant, and it draws me to my knees in wonderment and awe of what she was so willing to do, to say, so that it might be so.    

          On this sixteenth day of Advent, 2023, the reading I have chosen is from Isaiah 32:18-20.

The Reading

December 18, 2023

“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”  Isaiah 32:18-20.”  Isaiah 32:18-20