Advent Reflection

The season of Advent should strain your reason because it is a season of wonder. It is a time when we are asked to put aside our sense of how the world is and reflect instead on how it could be.

It’s easy, I think, to be cynical about the holidays.

To remember with rose-tinted glasses years

gone by, and to think that the state of the world is worse than it was in yesteryears. To be honest, I’ve been hearing that yearning for the past in a lot of the messaging that is coming out in this 2020 Advent season. There’s this unmistakable, and in my opinion unnecessary thread running through content about how hope looks different this year. How joy looks different this year, how peace looks different this year. How love looks different this year.

When I read the Christmas story, and I think about this year, I can’t help but think that hope, joy, peace, and love don’t look different this year. They look more like themselves than ever and we are being given new eyes to see them if only we would take off our rose-tinted glasses and put on our Jesus-tinted ones instead. To me, even though there has been challenge this year, I have seen those challenges (especially those which are, to be honest, inconvenient rather than actually tragic) as a blessing. It is a constant process to reframe difficulty (and again, I'm not talking about real suffering here) but I think it is an option we can choose, it is an opportunity to take if only we can see that God is always at work and that he especially uses tumultuous times to reach his people.

The Christmas story makes this abundantly clear and when I think about it I am struck by the overall unexpected nature of Jesus' story that showcases the deep wisdom of God:

God could have sent the armies of heaven to right the world, but he came himself, as one person.

God could have sent the strongest, smartest, most capable person, but he came as a newborn baby.

God could have been born to the most well-known, powerful family, but he chose a simple family instead.

God could have conquered people, but he chose to teach them.

God could have lived here with us forever, but he chose death. Death on a cross.

He took the world by surprise, doing everything in the opposite way from what was expected, pointing us towards himself and away from human standards, human wisdom, and human judgement. And I’m reminded of the verse in Matthew 18 when Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” There is wisdom in this scripture. And I think that we as Christians sometimes forget that we are asked to embody the child-like awe, amazement, and wonder of the Lord. To believe that he has, and remember that he will do the unexpected. We sometimes lose our capacity to set aside our reason and our logic and embrace those things that are unexpected and magical and invaluable.

If we want to embody this wonder and see God’s wonderful action we have to put aside our own feelings about the inconvenience of 2020, because, of course, there are things that are different than other years, but if we can put aside that rational anger and instead enter into the season with child-like wonder if we can allow ourselves to embrace deep delight, allow our imaginations to run wild in the wonder and silliness of the season- whether that means wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, eating cookies and sweets with abandon, or decorating our houses with lights and kitschy homemade decorations- we might be surprised to see what hope, joy, peace, and love really are.

They aren’t just words. They are promises. Promises that God made to his people, promises that all those with child-like faith can experience here on earth, and will experience with the Father in heaven. They are promises of things unseen and yet to come. I want to invite you to set aside your cynicism, and doubt, and instead be in the world with your Jesus-tinted glasses firmly hooked over your ears so that they won’t be knocked askew, even when you need to take off that ugly sweater.

What nostalgic, silly, fun-for-the-sake-of-being-fun, tradition or activity will you whole-heartedly do this Christmas season?

Keep practicing,

p.s. one of my favourite Christmas traditions is pulling a decoration out each day for an Advent wreath my mom made. It's very nostalgic for me. . . see below