The Good Lantern

Tsh Oxenrider published a lovely guidebook in 2020 called Shadow and Light: A Journey into Advent. She reminds us that the word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus,meaning coming or visit. 

Here in the first week of Advent, the first season of our liturgical year, we are now in a season of anticipation of the light of Christ, of waiting and wondering. Oxenrider wrote that “Advent is also a realization of our daily, ongoing preparation – the work of inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives and making room for Christ to do good work in us.”

Most of Shadow and Light is devoted to the four-week journey of Advent as we approach Christmas. The theme for Week One is Expectation, followed by Preparation, Anticipation, and Gratitude. Each entry for each day of each week includes a reflection, a psalm or other Scriptural reading, and a question to contemplate.

In the entry for tomorrow, Oxenrider invites us to consider, “When we reflect at daybreak on a small portion of God’s truth, beauty, or goodness, we open ourselves to seeing it unfold in the flesh through a candid comment from a child, a hint of snowfall in the scent of morning air, or the kindness in the smile of our mail carrier. Noticing God helps us keep noticing [God]... But still, we wait with expectation in the shadows. We remember the glimmer of hope and the steady hand that holds the good lantern. God is with us as we wait.”

The contemplative question for tomorrow is, “Where have you noticed God today?”

This question actually takes me back to last Wednesday at Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte, the day before Thanksgiving. In a short window of time in the morning, we witnessed the sure and steady movement of God through the kindness of strangers feeding strangers. That morning, donated food flowed through our doors from a local parish and from the Missionaries of Charity Sisters, a nearby faith community.

Almost as soon as donations came in, they were sent back out into the world into the hands of hungry neighbors. I noticed God in the bright faces and humanity of those bringing food and those taking food home. Last Wednesday morning was just one glimpse, illuminated by the good lantern, into God’s truth, beauty, and goodness brought to life by love in action.     

In service,

Emily+