Hope and Love~My Walking Prayer

         

These past weeks we have lit the candle of hope and the candle of love for Advent.  I think of these words and I wonder, actually I know, that they may have lost their value for some. 

November and December have proved to be a time of great loss and sorrow for so many in our community.  I think of all the hope that has been promised, all the love and heart emojis that have been sent, and I wonder if those waiting for a new day can hear what is behind these words.

            I have taken myself to task as I say these words--what does it really mean when I say "I hope everything is ok--works out"? What does it mean when I hope for new jobs, healing, housing, food and peace?  What is behind the words I say?  I like to think that my "hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul"--as described by Emily Dickinson.

            How do I love? Is my love easy or hard to acquire? Do I throw the word around so that  my love for applesauce, my children, lilacs and my neighbor seem to be the same?  Does my love come with conditions or is it made perfect the more I give it away?  Can I really love my neighbor as myself?

            This is what I have discovered; while I do occasionally use these two amazing, life giving and life forgiving words too lightly, they are for the most part my walking, driving, gardening, knitting, sewing, cooking, simply sitting and even dish washing prayers.  These are the words that I bring to God in all the times I pray.  So as I am hoping for you in the digging, stitching, and gazing; I am bringing that hope to God.  When I love you, usually with only an image in my mind, I am bringing you fully to God in my prayer; the anxious love in the scrubbing, the overwhelming love in the sunset on the highway, the tearful love over a boiling tea kettle and the joyful love in the aroma of freshly baked bread. 

Genesis 8:8-12(condensed) Then, Noah, sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from

 the surface of the ground.  But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark...He waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark.  When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! --He sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return.

Like Noah I will send my prayers of hope out over the flooded areas and the dry, like Noah I will try to love what comes back to me and what is set free.

I Love to tell the story or Stop on by----

Barbara from AnnaBella's took this beautiful picture.

       

          This is the first week of Advent.  For Christians this is a time of waiting, waiting as Mary did for Christ to arrive.  Of course we are really imitating the wait.  For 4 weeks of the year we try to stop and listen a little better and to see a bit more clearly.  At the end of the year we try to weed through the chaos and muck of the world and prepare our hearts for more.  The candle we lit on our Advent wreath this past Sunday was the candle of peace, which seems appropriate given the anxiety of the world.  I imagine many people are waiting for a little more peace right now.

 

            I shared last Sunday that my niece (who is now 22) loved when I would tell her the story of when she was born.  When my sister brought Maggie home from the hospital, her husband was away at a good friend's wedding, I was more than willing to jump in and help out while he was away.  She loved to hear how we were so happy for a girl after so many boys--4 between the two of us! She loved to hear about how we dressed her in every cute outfit, how we would lay her on the bed and just look at her smiling. She loved to hear me tell of this time and I think in part it was not only what I said but the way I said it, she could hear the fullness of love in my heart in the telling.

            It seems that the Advent story is one to be told in such a way that people can hear that fullness in our telling.  What would it mean to imitate the waiting in such a way that when we spoke of it, it would bless all people? 

I love this picture of the stop sign outside of the church in Richmond. My reaction flip-flops as I look at it. 

Does it mean: "Stop! Don't go in!" Or "Stop! Don't pass us by!"

            We know that people are skeptical and resistant of going to church, not just our church but any church.  Many people stop outside the doors of a church thinking this is not the place for me.  Maybe thinking the church is judgmental, out of date and deaf to the needs of the world.  We know these thoughts, the church knows change is necessary but change is hard. Real change takes time and for great change to happen we need a change agent. 

"A change agent is a person

from inside or outside the organization

who helps an organization transform itself

 by focusing on

such matters as organizational effectiveness,

improvement and development."

 study.com

            Advent is the time of waiting for the greatest change agent of all, Jesus Christ.  So if you have been wondering about church, if you have been remembering the story of a birth you love to hear, and if you are waiting for change and a fullness of peace that the world cannot offer; I suggest that you stop and not pass us by. 

            Change takes great courage, and patience; at the end of a crazy year we offer a place to sit and imitate Mary, so that we may be vessels of transforming peace.