I'm not ready for "happy holidays," for Advent reflections, cheesy movies, or new years.
Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. But it doesn't seem to matter how much I look forward to the season, it sidles in while I'm distracted, overwhelmed, or, you know, still in bed with the covers pulled over my head.
Wait, what's that noise? Oh, it's just the holidays breaking in through the living room window.
Eeeeek!
Maybe some of you like the way it sneaks up on you. You're in the grocery store and jingle bells starts playing overhead. You feel a little more cheerful as you drop canned goods in your cart and weave in and out of the egregious number of people standing oblivious in the middle of the aisles.
DEAR HEAVENS, PEOPLE, PLEASE STOP STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AISLES.
*ahem*
But maybe, like me, you feel like Advent is a houseguest who always arrives a day earlier than expected. You haven't made the bed yet, haven't vacuumed, haven't fixed the toilet or finished the laundry or built the back deck or really done any of the things with your life that you wanted to do or thought you would do or planned to do.
Maybe, like me, if you really got right down to it, you feel a little lost, whiplashed even, like you've been muddling around in - if not the dark, well, the half-light of perpetual dusk, anyway.
Well, we've got good company.
Isaiah 9:3, Matthew 4:16
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Isaiah 42:16
And, of course, that's the whole point of Advent, isn't it? Christ came for the lost, the lonely, the overwhelmed ... the underwhelmed. He came for the isolated, the addicted, the abandoned, the oppressed -- ALL people walking in darkness. And he comes for us still. Light and love break in on us where we are, in the midst of our stumbling, our grief, our not-knowing, our doubts and fears and longings unfulfilled, our desire for hope and meaning and something more.
So, kudos to those who are on top of things, who aren't lost or weary or disoriented. I rejoice with the ones who already have their Christmas decorations out, who are listening to holiday music and baking, those who made it to church this morning, those who were ready and more than ready for the promise the season offers. Seriously, we probably all want to be you. And the good news is that the light is coming for us all, independent of us and our efforts and our preparedness, regardless.
Ready or not.
