Bright Hope for Tomorrow
Well, I blinked and here November is, knocking on the door again with its colorful leaves and mugs of apple cider. It’s time to begin thinking about where we stashed those boxes of Christmas lights from last year. Advent is four Sundays away. January happened yesterday, didn’t it? This year has simply flown.
Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, may fall during the last month of our calendar year but it is, in fact, considered the beginning of the liturgical year - it’s fitting, isn’t it? It makes perfect sense that we would consider Advent - this marvelous time where we celebrate God doing something new, the start of something wonderful - as the beginning of the year. Also fitting is that, when you view Advent as the start of a new church year, we end the year with Thanksgiving - a time to express gratitude for all of the ways in which God has provided for and accompanied us this year.
This year, I have been made increasingly aware of the ways the Holy Spirit is moving within the Church. While many see the changes brought on by COVID as a death knell for the local church, I see the opportunity for much needed growth and renewal. That church doesn’t look the way it did two years ago is something exciting - not something to mourn - proof that God can and does still stir in our midst. We are being asked to engage in a lengthening of the table, to reach out to new people in new ways, to join God in setting the foundation for tomorrow’s Church.
“We are being asked to engage in a lengthening of the table, to reach out to new people in new ways, to join God in setting the foundation for tomorrow’s Church.”
Not only have I been keeping watch for evidence of God’s activity within the Church, but I have also been keeping my eye on the ways in which God has been moving within our secular culture. This has been and continues to be a year of great cultural division, yet if we look closely and objectively, we just may find Divine fingerprints on even secular efforts to unite, educate and encourage our fellow humans - Christian or not. It is almost as if the Church is breaking free of the brick-and-mortar box we’ve been so keen on keeping locked tight. This is great news - this is the coming of the Kingdom of God, the inbreaking of the Divine for all.
To sum it all up, what I’m thankful for this year is that no matter where I have looked, no matter what has been going on in my life or in our world, no matter if the headline was good or very bad… I have been able to pinpoint God’s presence in all things.
This November, in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Advent, I invite you to reflect upon the past year. Where have you seen the evidence of God’s presence? How has the Holy Spirit moved in and through your life? Do you believe the same as you did this time a year ago? Have you allowed for the softening of your heart? Have you let yourself be surprised by the Divine?
We are a beloved people with so many good things for which to be thankful. May we offer our heartfelt gratitude to God who sustains us through all things and does not cease to move in creative and unexpected ways.
