advent for the empty nester…..
These handcrafted nativity figures used to crown our yearly birthday cake for Jesus I would bake for my four children every Christmas Eve.
The traditions transition as the children get older.
This year, the children are gone.
Three of them are married now.
Celebrations will be scattered across the country, literally from one end to the other, as they foster their own traditions.
This season, like the entire year, will look different.
I prepare my heart in a new way this advent.
Advent, a season of waiting.
A season of waiting that follows a year of waiting, of uncertainty, of expectations met and unmet.
For the first time I create an advent wreath.
Preparations this week will not be of parties and cookie baking or decorating every corner.
Instead, there will a be quiet and solemn gathering
before a nestling of greenery and wood and candlelight
and a nativity repurposed.
A daily, solo, celebration
with a cup of coffee, and @annvoskamp’s The Greatest Gift.
In these silent moments
Without the bustle
In an empty house,
Just me and the cat,
I meet.
I wait.
I prepare my heart.
This season
at the end of a long year of endless waiting and wondering
and uncertainty
one thing is certain.
The one we wait for will restore our stories.
He is love, restoried.
“Only when you are overwhelmed with the goodness of God can you overflow with the goodness of God to others.” Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift
In this season of aloneness
the empty spaces have been filled with God himself.
As I anticipate what is next in my life
and in the life of my children.
And in the life of this country.
This is the advent of restoration
Of restoried stories
as we sift thought the uncertainty and turmoil, inside and out
to find
Peace.
Shalowm: completeness, soundness, welfare, peace in Hebrew.
The one who we await
The one who we think upon as we light a candle each Sunday
His name is the Prince of Peace.
Sar: prince, ruler, leader, chief, chieftain, official, captain in Hebrew.
This prince, this everlasting ruler became flesh and bones and blood that first Christmas.
His spirit
His glory was wrapped in swaddling cloths.
Linens reserved for unblemished lambs for the temple sacrifice in Bethlehem.
Glory wrapped and placed in a feeding trough, a manger.
He is the one who will nourish and sustain us.
The ones who hunger and thirst after His righteousness.
We will be filled.
We will be satisfied
by this tiny life.
In the quiet.
In the waiting
let our soul find rest in Him.
The Prince of Peace.
Emmanuel.
He fills the empty spaces.
He fills the empty rooms.
He fills the empty heart
with Himself.
“The greatest gift God graces a soul with is His own Presence.”
Ann Voskamp
