Advent Devotion for December 8

Turnaround God

by Robin E. Van Cleef

God has a way of turning things around,

calling green shoot from dead stump,

investing the common with a sense of royalty

sending the spirit,

fists crammed with love and justice,

wisdom and might,

to transform lives.

Come, turnaround God,

touch my divided self,

drawing together the polarities:

leopard and lamb

lion and calf

subject to the implicit child within.

Advent Devotion for December 7

Advent Prayer

by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Holy One,

prepare your way in me.

Give me faith, like the stable,

to know your presence within me.

Give me courage, like Mary,

to let your life overwhelm mine.

Give me strength, like Joseph,

to protect what is holy, tender and growing.

Give me patience, like the shepherds,

to be still and listen.

Give me humility, like the magi,

to kneel before your presence.

Give me trust, like the child,

to let myself be borne into a new world.

Give me joy, like the angels,

to bring good news to the poor.

Give me love, like the manger

to hold Christ within.

Holy One,

prepare your way in me.

Advent Devotion for December 6

The Coming of God

by Ann Weems

Our God is the One who comes to us

in a burning bush,

in an angel's song,

in a newborn child.

Our God is the One who cannot be found

locked in the church,

not even in the sanctuary.

Our God will be where God will be

with no constraints,

no predictability.

Our God lives where our God lives,

and destruction has no power

and even death cannot stop

the living.

Our God will be born where God will be born,

but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.

When God is ready

God will come

even to a godforsaken place

like a stable in Bethlehem.

Watch...

for you know not when

God comes.

Watch, that you might be found

whenever

wherever

God comes.

Advent Devotion for December 5

Into The Darkest Hour

by Madeleine L’Engle

It was a time like this,
War & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss-
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.

It was time like this
of fear & lust for power,
license & greed and blight-
and yet the Prince of bliss
came into the darkest hour
in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this
how celebrate his birth
when all things fall apart?
Ah! Wonderful it is
with no room on the earth
the stable is our heart.

Advent Devotion for December 4

In Search of Our Kneeling Places  

by Ann Weems

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,

an inn where we must ultimately answer

whether there is room or not.

When we are Bethlehem-bound

we experience our own advent in his.

When we are Bethlehem-bound

we can no longer look the other way

    conveniently not seeing stars,

not hearing angel voices.

We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily

tending our sheep or our kingdoms.

This Advent let's go to Bethlehem

and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.

In the midst of shopping sprees

let's ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts.

Through the tinsel

let's look for the gold of the Christmas Star.

In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos

let's listen for the brush of angels' wings.

This Advent, let's go to Bethlehem

and find our kneeling places.