Friday November 17, 2023
The Rev. Aaron B. Jenkyn
Finding hope in the stillness of Advent
Each year in the Northern Hemisphere, as the days get shorter and the nights get longer and colder, the season of Advent arrives. At a time when the world around us moves at an increasingly faster pace full of gleeful distractions our tradition calls us into a time of stillness. In the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we pray and light candles and wait and watch. In the stillness we come to know that even in the dark God’s love is there, waiting for us to find it and bring it into the open. This season of patient waiting helps us to find the courage to raise up our voices in song and prayer, calling on Jesus to come again with light and peace and healing in his wings.
When I think about patient waiting and all that the season of Advent can be, if we let it, I always come back to imagery of flower bulbs. There is no greater sign of hope for me than in the planting of bulbs each fall, into the darkness of the earth they go, and we wait, and hope, and trust that they will emerge in the spring. And they always do.
A few years ago I learned that you can take paperwhite bulbs and “force” them indoors during the winter. You place them in the dark for a short period of time, and then bring them back out into the light. At first the bulb looks dormant, dead even, but after just a few day in the light a green shoot appears, and then it grows and grows and grows some more. Then, in what feels like a miracle every year, it blooms in the days between Christmas and Epiphany, reminding us that “the dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.”
I have come to cherish this tradition and in recent years have found the prose and poetry and beautiful illustrations of Gayle Boss’s Advent Devotional, All Creation Waits to be a beautiful companion that can help call us back into the stillness of the season and help us to find the light in the dark. I commend both this project and this devotional to you this Advent season and look forward to journeying with you.
Advent begins December 2nd and in preparation for this season please join us at St. Johns this weekend, November 19th at 5:30pm to plant Advent Bulbs during our annual Parish Dinner. All ages are welcome and all materials will be provided. If you cannot make it we would be happy to put together a kit for you to do at home. Email Rev. Aaron Jenkyn at associate@stjohnsnh.org or call the office to request a kit.