Come soon, Come here.

We celebrated the first week of advent this week at church. We sang, "O Come, O Come, Immanuel," its my favorite Christmas hymn. I remember singing it last year when walking to Bethlehem at 2 am with Maegan and a few other friends. it was one of those sacred moments which I am learning to treasure, for we are all fighting an indifference which erodes at the sacred in our lives.

Do you remember in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Lucy is reading from the magicians book? There is one which reads, "for the refreshment of the soul." As she begins to recite the spell she finds herself reciting "more of a story than a spell." Upon finishing she exclaims its the most beautiful story she has ever read but realizes that she can't at all remember anything about it. When Aslan finds her in the house she begs him to repeat the story to her. The lions response is, "Indeed yes, I will tell it to you for years and years." I thought of this during the sermon today, though its barely related...

The pastor spoke about advent and hope. Advent is a reminder that we are only part of a larger story, a story which continually reveals the Creator God intimatlly involved in His creation, both in an individual and collective sense. Amid the sickness of family members, the pain of broken relationships, the utter devestation shouting at us from the news, the ache of daily evil and all the horrible complexities of sin we dare to talk about a Prince of Peace. We sing Immanuel, God with us. May what our eyes see grant desperation to our songs and words.

Come soon, Come here, be with us in blessed hope.