It
seemed as though I had just settled down for a cold winter’s nap, when my mind
awoke to a frantic knock on my window that frigid New Orleans morning. I
recognized the frenetic voice outside my window as the young woman— now my
wife— was yelling, “Wake Up! Wake Up!” While I was working for Campus Police it
was not out of the ordinary to receive calls in the night, and my mind
immediately turned to a flood of apprehension and focused adrenaline as I
jumped out of bed and ran to the door. To my surprise and subsequent relief, there
stood a pretty young lady holding two cups of steaming hot chocolate with a
smile as big as Texas, displaying a childlike glow of excitement in the midst
of a flurried white backdrop of freshly fallen snow.
“It’s
snowing, it’s snowing!” she shouted. As we bound down the stairs into a clean blanket
of white, it appeared that all of campus had turned out to begin their
obligatory construction of the greatest, and therefore largest, snowman that
could ever be conceived. The normal routine of study and class had quickly become
an afterthought compared to the first snow New Orleans had seen in over four
years.
It’s
often forgotten memories like these that seem to remerge every year as Fall
turns to Winter and the much-anticipated holidays are in full swing. Romantic
notions of pageantry and family once again fill our heads producing inner
warmth that seems to soften the bitter cold, while heralding a fresh start to
the hardened routine of life.
It’s
within this sovereignly placed package of celebration that we find ourselves in
the Season of Advent, literally meaning ‘coming.’ And with that ‘coming’ over
two thousand years ago we can also find ‘warmth’— breaking into the hardened
rule and routine of a people who had been conquered and oppressed for hundreds
of years. That warmth was felt in the healing of the sick, the casting out of
demons, and the solidarity of a suffering servant— presenting freedom both to
the poor and oppressed. Moreover it is this eternal warmth that is still felt
today in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is ever-present within those who are
Christ’s as “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning’s to deep for
words,” most notably during times of greatest joy and loneliest sorrow. [1]
Will
you join me in seeking His presence today?
Will you feel the warmth of His spirit as we celebrate this most sacred
of seasons?
No comments:
Post a Comment