Advent Reflections
Advent is well underway as we light another candle and begin another week. We’ve spent the last two Sunday’s reflecting on both Hope and Peace, and this day is met with a deep breath. But, maybe your Advent hasn’t looked exactly like you thought it would. Maybe the Christmas parties have begun, the finances feel tighter, and grief and anxiety around family get togethers and those missing around your table have set in.
If I am being honest, I often come into this season with so many expectations of how I want it to look and feel. Slow days, quiet nights, time to stop and reflect alone or with a friend, twinkling lights, time in the kitchen making my favorite Christmas dishes, and cozy Christmas movie nights. But more times than not, this season is met with busyness and anxious hearts.
However, I think (or rather I am still learning), there is so much beauty and grace to still be found there. At least, that’s what I am finding in this particular Advent season. For me, this first week of Advent was met with a mad rush and anxiety, and what I continued to find along the way was grace. When the days began chaotic and the opening of advent countdowns and the reading of my Advent book didn’t all go as planned, it was there I found grace.
Maybe that’s it though. Maybe that’s what, this year, I am supposed to be learning. Learning about grace. Learning that just like that first night when Jesus entered the world, things don’t have to look or feel perfect. Learning that in those moments of imperfection and chaos, we can pause and find intentionality there too. Maybe that grace and intentionality comes in the form of a baby thousands of years ago, or maybe it comes simply from a smile across a table. Maybe it’s in the form of doing life together in the midst of hard seasons, or the listening ear at the end of a long day. Maybe grace comes from the other end of a phone when you’ve told that same story or thought one too many times, or from the kindness of a stranger when you least expect it. No matter where you find it this season; I hope you too can pause, take a deep breath, and meet grace right where it finds you.
