Advent: Come to, to Come too

Brilliance over Bethlehem pierces the hanging black, a nail of light tacking up the heavens. Star radiance falls in shafts, lifelines, across dark. No mere festival of lights, this is an explosion of hope on those living in the land of the shadow of death.

We come to.

‘Tis the season of Advent and we are ones coming to, waking. Haven’t we slept too long?

Shepherds hurry. Wise men race across the sands to see. Angels, there at the genesis of light, descend, congegrate, for this real dawning, wings beckoning the world to come as the chorus cresendoes. So we do.

We come too.

‘Tis the season of Advent and we are ones coming too, worshipping. Haven’t we stayed too long out in our own fields, tending to our own business?

The Latin definition of ad-venio proclaims the essence of Advent: “to come to.”

This season offers us choice: we could sleep walk through Advent: making lists, package, post, decorate, tie it all with a bow. And never come to. And never come, too.

Or we could come to. Come too.

I understand: it would be easy to stay sleeping. We are weary. The pace of this season wears and grinds.

I know: it would be easy to stay. Isn’t the season enough of a dizzying whirl with exhausting merry-go-round of dinners and dates?

But the wise men did not sleep. The wise men did not stay.

How do we be wise men, waking, coming too?

Take up a few wheat kernels, a planter of dirt, and, like wise men going, set out in search of a Savior.

• Go and tuck a loaf of fresh bread in the hands of a widower. Plant a wheat kernel.

• Go and shovel out the walk of an elderly neighbor. Plant a wheat kernel.

• Go and make a bed for a brother, make a hot chocolate for a sister, make a batch of cookies for someone incarcerated. Plant a kernel, plant a kernel, plant a kernel.

When we bury Advent wheat seeds in the ground, we symbolize our own self-sacrifice, our own dying. Yet these Advent seed resurrect to new life, a bounty of green in dead of winter. Like light breaking forth in darkness.

Our seeds have awakened us to God.

Our seeds have sent us to God.

And then on Christmas Eve, we will gather the sprouts of grass that have grown from our wheat seeds, and we'll come to the nativity manger.

This wheat, grown from our acts of awaking to Him and going into the world with His love, will be our gift to the Christ-Child in the trough.

In flickering candlelight, we will watch pudgy little fingers line the crèche with this Advent straw. Wrinkled fingers will tenderly spread out wheat shoots, Advent’s living gift, for the Babe to come lay His head.

Advent calls us to awake to something simpler, deeper, richer. Advent calls us to arrive at that which is eternal: Himself.

Awake and come, this advent. The manger needs your heart straw. The manger’s Babe needs your heart.

Come to, to come too.




Materials needed to grow heart straw for the manger:

*dirt
*containers for dirt (we use a deep old muffin tin -- one indentation per person)
*wheat seeds
*a heart willing to wake and go into the world with His love

To grow straw manger:

*plant a kernel in container for each act of love done in His name, a gift for the Christ-Child, during Advent
*gently water the seeds
*watch kernels sprout into grass

On Christmas Eve, gather up the sprouts to line your nativity's cradle for the Christ-Child


:::



Related: A highly recommended, thorough e-book resource: A Recipe for Christmas Joy by a very dynamic author and Proverbs 31 speaker, Marybeth Whalen


A Recipe for Christmas Joy is a go-to resource for the entire holy-days:
* how to make Jesus the center of your Christmas
* a complete menu for Christmas dinner and a traditional New Year's Day meal (with recipes)
* a week by week checklist for organizing your Christmas
* suggestions for easy meals on those busy nights
* how to observe advent in a way that will work for your situation

Get a taste of the book with this book excerpt, one of this month's columns at CWO, most practical and helpful: Budget Busters: Christmas Spending

To view more of A Recipe for Christmas Joy at Proverbs 31 ministries

Photos: our nativity, hand-quilted by my Mama, waiting for the Coming