There was a time in the not-too-distant past when I would have been inclined to push on through.
There’s a certain rhythm one develops through the years, you see. An oft-repeated task comes with its own well-defined markers, its designated milestones.
And so it is with our Yuletide tree: An imitation Norfolk pine, and a synthetic workhorse – having decorated our family’s Christmas celebrations for at least the past decade (and probably more).
Because it’s metal-and-plastic, this tree requires “setting up” rather than “cutting down.” And it’s been around long enough to have gone through several different lighting-tinsel-garland schemes, just to keep things fresh. (Or at least “artificially fresh.”)
But once “set up,” never in my memory has the tree remained dark for more than an hour or two. Stringing the twinkling lights through its branches is not Step Two in the assembly process. It’s Step One-B, very much an integral part of the initial set-up task. Ornaments and ribbons might come a day or two later, but never the lights. The lights get done before the Dominos gets ordered, that’s the rule. That’s the rhythm around our place.
Well.
It was the rhythm until yesterday, anyway.
We now have a new early-Advent tradition it would appear: the lights can wait, too.
Stately, sturdy…but as yet, unlit.
It’s OK to press “Pause” if we choose. It might even be advisable, given an age-related reduction in the energy levels of the Assembly Crew. The downside, if you can call it that, is a prolongation of the clutter crowding the living room – boxes and cartons and totes still waiting to be unpacked.
A bit too much clutter for a short period of time: that’s an Advent object lesson if there ever was one. We don’t tend to do “waiting” well, do we? Rather, we’re into instant gratification, tasks accomplished, questions answered, mysteries solved.
But that’s not typically how we find God at work in the world, is it? Redemption unfolds slowly. Salvation comes at a time we do not expect. These are the insights scripture offers us this year on the First Sunday of Advent. “Be watchful! Be alert!” Jesus teaches. “You do not know when the time will come.”
And as we wait, we would do well to ponder – along with the prophet Isaiah – how perhaps we are being called to be part of that redemptive work.
You, LORD, are our father; ‘our redeemer’ You are named forever… Would that You might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of You in our ways!
We know that when the One who comes to redeem us comes in gentleness, he’s easy to miss. Perhaps that’s why we sometimes need to break our established rhythms. We need to press “Pause,” so that we can be listening well as we pray:
O Wisdom,
Lord and Ruler,
Root of Jesse,
Key of David,
Rising Sun,
King of the Nations,
Emmanuel.
Come, Lord Jesus!
A little extra time spent with clutter can remind us what needs to be cleared away.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 