The sun wasn’t up yet, but I was.
Early Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving, I was in the kitchen brewing a pot of coffee. Until suddenly, I wasn’t.
The lights flickered, then died. I heard the tell-tale “beep-beep” of the UPS battery back-up switching into action in the next room. And I thought to myself, “This is NOT good.”
Not good, because our oven had no power – the oven in which I planned to roast our turkey later that day. Not good, because our fridge was powerless, too – powerless to maintain a food-safe temperature for our already-defrosted bird. Not good, because the coffee maker hadn’t finished its brew cycle … so I didn’t even have a jolt of caffeine to help me sort out options for rescuing the next day’s family feast, now in imminent danger of imploding.
Fortunately, the power loss was brief – no more than a minute or two – and what had loomed as a “pending disaster” in my fretful mind … morphed into nothing more than an “annoyance”: a few digital clocks around the house had to be reset to the proper time.
As for the feast, it came off well, exceedingly well – our home filled with family and friends and food and revelry. As did the party the next day at my brother’s house (save for an excruciating Billikens’ loss). Then yesterday, preparations were underway for yet another party (because why have one feast if three will do?) when the snow came.
The sun wasn’t up, but I was. And I was awake enough to appreciate the quiet beauty of the early-morning scene.
Shortly thereafter, of course, my fretful mind kicked into gear…wondering how the pre-dawn loveliness would affect our family’s travel plans for the day. Which inevitably it did – meaning the third feast in as many days had to be postponed.
It certainly wasn’t my idea to pause yesterday. I had plans. But pause I did.
Paused long enough, in fact, to consider that we are on the cusp of a new season – Advent. The pause gave me a chance to consider my own holiday busyness in the light of Jesus’ teaching in this week’s gospel passage:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.”
Advent sneaks in like an early-season snow – to stir my heart and cause me to wonder, what does my “busyness” tend to obscure? What am I missing, because I typically favor “busyness” over “holiness”?
Twice this week, I’ve experienced unexpected pauses. Perhaps I’d do well to take the hint. As St. Paul says:
You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…
And so, as we ponder our presumptuous foibles … we pause to pray:
O Wisdom
Lord and Ruler
Root of Jesse
Key of David
Rising Sun
King of the Nations
Emmanuel
Come, Lord Jesus!
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 