Today is December 2 - in the first week of Advent

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence, and say Come Holy Spirit.

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1.“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”

We begin this Advent with the question: what does it mean to truly BEHOLD something? Not just to notice it, or to get a glimpse… but to see, and to see deeply? Our reading from Mark says: “Behold, I will send my messenger before your face” Think for a moment: when was the last time you looked slowly and deeply at something or someone, as though to work the image of what you see deep into your mind and memory?

Now, imagine yourself standing at the ‘doorway of advent’. Slow down and consider what you are opening that door to as you step into this Holy season: to God himself, incarnate, a vulnerable infant born into a wild and reckless world. The savior of all that is, lying there in a dirty stable. Lying there, a soon-to-be refugee. Lying there: the love of God revealed as WITH US.

Now, enter into a personal moment of prayer by imaging yourself opening the door that is before you… what do you see, or feel, or hear, or smell… as you behold your savior in this scene?….“Behold, I will send my messenger before your face.” That sounds to me like a description of something that gets very, very close. In your face, it seems. As we end our time of prayer today, ask God to help you keep your awareness of His presence ‘before your face’ this Advent season.…

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.Behold, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome in…In the name of the Father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Music: "O Come O Come Emmanuel" - Heaven & Earth (YouTube)