When the time had fully come...

'But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son'
Galatians 4:4

Advent is here! I've probably said before, I love Advent. As the world gets even more crazy-busy, this introvert longs to light all the candles, grab a book and lose myself in reflection on the Christmas story.

This year the story is sending tingles down my spine- perhaps due to spending so much of the last year reading the Old Testament, and tracing the nuanced, layered, oft-repeated promise of the coming King through book after book and century after century. I can imagine the angels holding their breath, as Jesus is poised on the edge of Heaven, ready to dive into from his throne to the stable floor, because 'the time had fully come...'

I was very moved by this post which captures that very element of promise-fulfilled at long last. The writer speaks of the four hundred year silence between the end of the Old Testament and the angel arriving in front of Zachariah. The Israel Jesus came to may not have been in great shape, but there were people faithfully waiting, telling the stories, trusting and hoping. After four hundred years of nothing!! (Follow 'stewardship' on social media to get their advent reflections.)

I usually have a book to take me through December. Sarah Clarkson has written a fabulous list here, most of which are now on my amazon wishlist. The book I have picked up for this month is not an advent book at all, but a little book of poetry which goodreads tells me I have been reading all year! It is by the writer of 'The Message', and is called 'Holy Luck; Poems of the Kingdom'. Poetry seems to be the very thing to help me slow down and ponder in a season of mad rush, and the second collection (my favourite of the three) is packed with Christmas-themed poems. I will leave you with one which speaks to me of the value of advent reflection...

Dream
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream
Matthew 1 : 20

Amiably conversant with virtue and evil,
The righteousness of Joseph and wickedness
Of Herod, I'm ever and always a stranger to grace.
I need this annual angel visitation

- sudden dive by dream to reality-
To know the virgin conceives and God is with us.
The dream powers its way through winter weather
And gives me vision to see the Jesus gift.

Light from the dream lasts a year. Impervious
To equinox and solstice it makes twelve months
Of daylight by which I see the creche where my

Redeemer lives. Archetypes of praise take shape
Deep in my spirit. As autumn wanes I count
The days 'til I will have the dream again.

From Holy Luck: Poems of the Kingdom, by Eugene H Peterson