Getting Antsy

Did you know that this time of the year is not actually the Christmas season?

Nope.

I have been reminded in a couple of ways lately that this part of our yearly calendar is actually Advent.

Now, before you yawn and close the page, bear with me. I know, it's a boring word, and most of us don't know what it means and perhaps couldn't care less. "Cut the chatter; I've got 15 gifts to buy and wrap, 3 Christmas programs to prep for, and 70 dozen Christmas goodies to make, so I really don't care that I use the wrong semantics when I tell people goodbye."

I get that, really I do - but there's something worthwhile to realizing the difference, something that could revolutionize the way you experience this holiday. I know this because it is happening to me.

So, Advent. What is it?

Wikipedia, the almost-all-knowing, says, "Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning 'coming'."

Or, in normal English, "a coming into place, view, or being; arrival; the coming of Christ into the world." (Thank you, Dictionary.com!)

Traditionally, this is symbolized through the lighting of candles, more being lit as the celebration of Christ's birth draws nearer, showing the light of the Word coming into a world dark with sin.

It's a nice little exercise, but like a lot of churchianity, it can become rote when we get too busy to think about what's going on around us - or even what it is that we are playing an active role in.

Think about the world that Jesus came into:
There was no New Testament. The people of Israel had their stories of God's Creation, passed down from Adam (he probably got it from God's own mouth!), canonized by Moses. They knew the who and where of where their people had come from, how God had called them as a nation out of Egypt, given them the law, and promised the beautiful gifts of His presence. They had learned, from the cradle, of the judges and kings; of idolatry and exile; of prophets of doom and hope and warnings and promises. And then? And then there was nothing. For three- or four-hundred years, there was a heavenly - yet how lonely - silence. The Romans swept through on the heels of the Greeks and became the most recent model of oppression. The proud Jewish people once again had to bend to the will of an earthly power rather than their all-powerful God and had to submit to the indignity of the conquered rather than living up to their dream of independence and freedom. I have to think that somewhere in there, children watched parents and grandparents living their faith and yet receiving no compensation, no assurance of being heard, and started to wonder if maybe God had forgotten to listen, forgotten His promises, forgotten His people. But they kept trying, kept waiting, kept hoping.

And then.

And then God came. He showed up in a way that few expected, but He was there all the same. He rescued them from chains they did not know they had but that had consequences extending far beyond the reach of the Roman empire. He brought freedom from sin rather than from earthly problems, and He formed a people out of all peoples rather than regathering anyone with a drop of Hebrew blood in their veins.

He didn't meet their expectations, but how far better was His plan! Salvation for all, not some; blessing for the many, not the few.

And so we have Advent, anticipation leading up to the full-blown presence of God on earth, the Divine becoming tangible, the Creator amid the creatures.

But that's not all!

Think about our world today:
Here we are almost 2,000 years since the final "Amen" was written, and we have the 66 books. We know God's great story. The Holy Spirit indwells us while Christ Himself intercedes for us before the Father who has good planned for us. But how dark it can be here in the day-to-day! The present is so real, so demanding, so all-consuming, that our mansions in the New Earth acquire the feel of a fairy tale - it feels good to think about it, but it doesn't seem to make a difference in our cleaning and laundry and jobs and vacations. Besides, faith is rapidly leaching out of vogue; the public mention of Christ is being ground out of what is permissible and decent - even during the Christmas season! Say anything except that Christ came to save us, the voices scream, Love anything rather than the Trinitarian God!

And then.

And then, God will come again. Someday, we will look back on it from a beautiful future, but for now we get to live in the anticipation of divine intervention. The story was begun in the Old Testament and brought to fruition in the New. We were even told the ending. But today, we get the privilege of living in the tension of the already-not yet. We are already saved; justice is not yet fully wrought. We have already seen God on earth; He has not yet come to make His final dwelling here.

Remember Christmases as a little tyke? Recall that feeling of nearly jumping out of your skin to see those presents under the tree! And you knew that some of them, a few of them, were wonderful gifts just waiting for the moment when you could unwrap them and then they would belong to you! There were the ones that filled out the paper in a shape suspiciously like the doll/Legos you'd been begging for; then there were the ones that gave no hint of their contents, yet beckoned promisingly with bows and bright paper of the excitement they contained.

That is what Advent is. It's knowing that there is a future planned for you full of good gifts. It's knowing that soon, God is going to break in on our humdrum life. It's knowing that these little glimpses we get now are just general shapes and shadows of the glories to come.

He has come, and He is coming again.

That is Advent.

Christmas Decorating

I was so excited to start Christmas decorating this year! Putting up our own ornaments in our own home . . . wow! It felt like an adventure to figure out where I wanted what, and my husband was so kind as to participate - it made for a relational memory that did my feminine heart good.

Except, I knew we were going to have a bit of a problem with the Christmas tree. The problem looked something like this:

Yes.

I had pulled our tree up from storage a few days earlier to see how Louis would interact with it, and it wasn't long before he let me know.

He had so much fun scratching that "bark" and rolling its papery substance around in his mouth! And of course he had to climb it once and tip it (I was surprised that it was only once, actually).

As you can imagine, I was starting to see visions of broken, bitten, scratched, and otherwise destroyed Christmas ornaments that represented many happy memories in my life.

Houston, we had a problem.

Well, as my husband is so fond of proudly saying, I am an engineer's wife, and with a little thought and a little of his muscle, we engineered ourselves a solution.

Ladies and gentlemen, our cat-proof Christmas tree!

You may notice in the foreground a small, carpeted structure meant for cats' enjoyment and relaxation. Louis had never paid it a whole lot of attention, but it is now his favorite place to sit, eye-level with the lace tree skirt, looking wistfully at what he cannot have.

Of course, I supervise his visit with the tree (he's already stolen one of the pine cones from off the skirt), but - all things considered - I do believe we have found the best of both worlds: that of owning a cat and an intact Christmas tree!

Feeling Kist

Life circumstances are such lately that I have been able to witness anew what it means to see God's provision. I believe the math goes something like this:
Need + Prayer = Opportunity

I am so used to finagling things to work out - I need something, so I find it on sale, on line, whatever. Well, with adjusting to a home mortgage, I'm learning that I can't always just go out and buy something. (Wouldn't my husband be glad to read those words!)

I mean, God doesn't want to bother with the little affairs of running a household, right? Sure, He cares how I spend my time, that I have a Bible time, that I pray, that I treat my husband well, etc., etc. But how much does He really get down into the inanities of the workings of my life?

Well, I'm learning in a whole new way that He delights to give us good things. Think of that! God isn't all about taking things away from us; He gets excited when He gets to bless us! I've probably taken away a lot of His opportunities to bless me by my ability to go get what I want/need. (Now there's a sobering thought.)

One way I saw this was in my desire for a simple little kitchen tool. Being a newly-wed, there are still a few gaps in my household equipment, and one that was noticeable was an old-fashioned Kitchmajig. My mom had one, and I had used it often for cooking, and I was missing it.

So, I found it on Amazon! Hooray! But, for some reason, I could never justify adding it to my order.

So I went without.

I had thought about it on and off for awhile when, one weekend, I was perusing the city garage sales. Wouldn't you know it, in a box of free kitchen items lay a humble kitchmajig.

I praised God for that funny little blessing.

I don't know that I even thought to ask Him for one.

Another time, I was wishing for a good Dutch broom. We were cleaning out our shed on the back of our property with a simple lonely broom, and I couldn't help think how much easier it would be with a push broom.

Later, I was downtown in the hardware store. The clearance tables beckoned, and I happened to notice a small version of a push broom leaning against it. I shrugged and figured it wouldn't hurt to check the price tag . . . and I think God must have laughed at my expression when I read the word "FREE"!

It turned out that the broom head had been laying around the store for a while, and they had a regular broom that had broken, so they took the stick from the latter and stuck it with the former, and - bada bing, bada boom - God had a broom for me.

Okay, so they're stupid little things. But every time I use my kitchamajig, and especially every time I see that little Dutch broom, I thank God for caring about my petty little needs and wants and for stooping down from His throne to surprise me with His generous abundance.