“Be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a
dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19
By Jen Christianson, Pastoral Resident
When I
was growing up, I heard these words from my mother a lot: “patience is a virtue.”
And, more often than not, I would say right back, “but it isn’t one of mine.”
I like a plan, and a list, and
objectives I can accomplish – so every year Advent arrives as a particular
challenge to me. Four whole weeks of waiting – when I could be racing through
the days with wrapping and shopping and baking, I’m supposed to stop and
reflect. To meditate on light, at the darkest time of the year, in a year that
has remained stubbornly dark throughout. I turn on the TV, or the radio each
morning; I read the news, and it’s almost always darkness that makes headlines.
Natural disasters and warring countries; so-called leaders acting like
criminals and sickness ravaging bodies.
Advent challenges me every year to
look that darkness face on for four weeks and deny that it is the whole story,
or the last word: to attend to the promises of Scripture. To be patient, and to
hope. To hold onto a little light, like a lamp in a dark room, waiting for the
dawn.
At
first, it doesn’t seem like much – but then I remember that a little bit of
light kept the apostle Paul confident even when jailed and beaten, kept the
disciples gathering even when Jesus was in a tomb, and still keeps so many
people working for good in impossible, dark places. A little bit of light can be enough. A little
bit of light can also be shared – like using one candle to light others. It can
multiply. It can defy, in some places, the darkness. And soon enough, God
reminds me, it will overcome it entirely.
