AHEAD :: Five-Minute Friday

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AHEAD

Well, what do you know? 2020 could get weirder. I need to say that imagining the gazillions of ordinary people working behind the scenes to do the tedious work of counting ballots goes near the top of the list of "unexpected delights" about this year.

About mid-October this year I begin to feel the warm whisper of anticipation for Advent. It says "Good prayer time is ahead." in my ear. Every early summer I wait for Ordinary Time like the last day of school when I can throw off the structure of the liturgical calendar but by late autumn I'm so ready for the rhythms of prayer and worship Advent ushers in.

It's a bit funny, I guess, to look forward to the arrival of a season that's entirely committed to helping us remember we're all waiting for an arrival. Our ancestors waited in the long dark centuries between the messengers and the Messiah. We're all waiting again. In between those two time periods, a few folks recognized that salvation sprang up from the ground in the person of Jesus. For 33 years God rent the heavens and came down. And somehow, the humble, dark days of Advent offer us a container sturdy enough to believe again that Jesus came, Jesus comes, and Jesus is coming again.

Take heart, friend. Our best days are ahead. When we remember the beauty of Christ's arrival, that is really saying something.

Peace of Christ,

Tamara

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Welcome back to the new weekly feature, Five-Minute Friday. For the remaining weeks of Ordinary Time, I'll be sharing a five-minute written reflection on one word I've been pondering. (I'm literally setting a stopwatch for five minutes so that I can just write already!)

Thanks for being a listening community and a safe place to offer stories from my everyday experiences and epiphanies. I'm grateful for your companionship.


I'd love to hear your reflections from this week. Feel free to respond to the word "HELD" or just share your own experiences and epiphanies from the week.

*This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up! You can read all the Five-Minute Friday posts here.