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I visited today someone who is dying from brain cancer. We read Psalm 27 and shared communion and she said, “Even out of bad situations, good can come; faith is back in my life.” I asked her what had drawn her away and she shared what happens to a lot of us – it was easier to sleep in and make a big breakfast.
Then she went deeper and shared, “Grace moments used to be far-between; now it’s like I can see them; it’s like a line coming down ending in a pile of grace.”
Grave illness, sorrow can do that for us – focus our lens so we can see with greater clarity what was always there – grace -- not far-between but pouring down, rising up all around us.
Advent comes at a crazy time of year; and yet, that makes it a perfect time of year. In the midst of all our busyness of decorating and shopping and holiday partying or in the midst of the loneliness of memories of such times that are no more, Advent calls us to watch, to wait, to prepare the way, to make room for God; I think that’s the same as beckoning us to look for that line coming down that ends in a pile of grace; it’s not far off, we’re standing in it.
--Pastor Dianne