Today begins Advent. The season in which we celebrate the first coming of Christ, and in which we focus on the waiting with expectant hope of His second coming. I am always deeply grateful for the sacred rhythms. On the one hand, there is feasting and fellowship with friends and family, and on the other hand a profound sense of pregnant watchfulness. Waiting with anticipation and sure expectation is one of the exquisite luxuries of life in Christ. Why? Because He makes promises. And all His promises are yes and amen. (2 Corinthians 1:20) In John 14:3, He tells His disciples, “…I will come again and receive you to Myself….”…

Today my dear husband helped me decorate the ledge in our living room. I wanted to put a couple of lighted trees up there and a velvet clothed Santa. The ledge is twelve feet up, and this was no small feat. He held the ladder so I could climb up and then coached and encouraged me in those first few terrifying minutes when I was sure the whole endeavor was a very bad idea. He lifted all the items up to me, including additional things that I thought of in the process. After I had positioned everything I realized I needed to see what it looked like from the ground.…

Leaves are falling now, and branches are becoming bare. The air is cooler and the wind more penetrating. It is a welcome change, even though tinged with the promise of even more barrenness and bitter cold. I am always glad when the season changes, because every season has its own glory. I am charmed and strangely comforted by the rhythms and cycle of life on this God’s especially created world. I say, “strangely” comforted, because in a way I am surprised that with each new season I lean forward in anticipation of what it will bring, all the while knowing that it will surely pass and another will come. Why…

“He then is all my hope and stay.” This line is from an old hymn; one of my father’s favorites and one of mine. In these days between the first and second coming of Christ, the circumstances in the world are fraught with uncertainty and troubles of all kinds. Kings and leaders, good ones and bad ones, have risen and fallen. Nations have been at war, and there are yet rumors of war. The world is in constant motion and situations are always changing. “When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.” (On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, by Edward Mote 1834)…

I heard a story this week that captured my heart. Strangely, it was in a corporate leadership meeting, and my co-workers and I were listening to a guest speaker who was encouraging us to be open to compassion and friendliness as character traits of a good leader. The story goes like this: An anthropologist had gone to Africa to be with a remote group of indians for a period of time for research. During his stay, he became warmly attracted to the children in the village and wanted to do something special for them. He decided to give them a basket of chocolates (a rare treat). Wanting to make it…