The final candle in the Advent wreath is the Love candle.
It’s been a pleasantly busy week. As I said in last week’s post, I love every part of Christmas – the activities, the music, the presents, the decorations, the food . . . the food. Here’s some of the fun I’ve been having:
We’ve been busy celebrating with dear ones and preparing for next week’s festivities. I am even getting this blog ready a few days in advance, that I may greet Christmas week with a free mind and clear heart.
Yet, through this medley of cheerful chaos, a strain of revelation pierced my heart and is still resonating.
And it came, as many revelations do, on a long run.
Part of my preparations for next week has been adding extra mileage to my daily runs, so I can enjoy next week’s lighter exercise regimen. On Tuesday, I was getting ready for one of these longer runs when I discovered my iPod had failed to charge.
Music is important to my running pleasure, particularly on a longer run, so I set out slightly downcast. Soon, however, I hit upon a way to pass the time: I would sing through EVERY VERSE of EVERY CAROL I KNOW in my head.
It was the most enjoyable run I have had in a while – and I didn’t even get through all the carols.
The words of these songs are so rich, and I found myself better able to meditate upon them in the quiet of my own heart, rather than hearing them sung to me in a beautiful arrangement. I felt the truth and the wonder settling down deeper into my soul as mile followed mile – and, somewhere past the halfway mark, the glory struck.
This incomprehensible truth of God becoming man: I do not have to “grasp” it.
It is grasping me – and the grip of this newborn baby is stronger than all my insufficiencies.
Last week’s post spoke of the sense of “unreadiness” that often dogs my heels at Christmas. Here, in arresting clarity, was the answer: I will never be ready.
If I ever think I am . . . Heaven help me.
Furthermore, the final poem of my Advent cycle – except the Christmas Eve sonnet, of course – practically wrote itself in the overflow of this revelation. I’ve addressed the other poems in this cycle directly to the themes: Hope, Peace, Joy.
I realized in that moment of revelation that, if I am addressing this poem to Love, I am addressing it to the baby Jesus Himself – the One who IS Love.
I pray it blesses you. May we all learn afresh this year just how tightly we are held in the mighty, unfailing grip of Love.
Advent 2018
WEEK 4 – Love
Your infant grip more strong
Your newborn reach more long
Than any full-grown wrong
I kneel in reverent song
Where all our hearts belong
And learn again that I am held by Love.
Oh! How I needed to hear this!! Thank you!!!
Thank you!