To hear my blog post read aloud, just click the play button. If you’re reading this in an email, you may have to click here to hear the post on my site.

It is a quiet hush, this advent, but a hush that is expectant.

It is a silent waiting, this advent, but a waiting that is heavy.

It is the upraised conductor’s baton before the explosive opening salvo.

Don’t let the quiet waiting deceive you. The very idea of the God who spoke light into existence becoming an eyeless embryo swimming in the dark of a womb is astounding.

Don’t let the season itself distract you. The caroling and feasting, the decorating and gifting, it all tries to smother the startling significance of advent.

We must try to “restore that quietness, that inner peace, that willingness to wait unfulfilled in the dark, in the midst of a season that conspires to do nothing but fling bling and tinsel at us right through December.” ~ Malcolm Guite

Find your quiet moments and stay focused.

Advent celebrates a visitation to our world. A visitation that will happen again.

The visitation of our God upon this little planet of ours happened once and will happen again and we are to work to bring it about.

It is not a passive waiting. It is a heavy and expectant waiting. A waiting into which we are welcomed.

That is why, behind all our fun and games at Christmastime, we should not try to escape a sense of awe, almost a sense of fright, at what God has done…Nothing can alter the fact that we live on a visited planet. ~ J. B. Phillips

This advent is a waiting in which we are to pray and work for the spreading of God’s kingdom, for His will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

This advent is a waiting in which we are to be awake and alert so that His coming will not be a horror to us but an unending joy.

It is a quiet hush, this advent, but a hush that is focused.

It is a silent waiting, this advent, but a waiting that is industrious.

E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.

All photographs copyright Made Sacred 2017