advent

can i share with you how God has been generous with me in the past week? 
a couple from our new church in Saskatoon amazingly gave us airmiles for the kids and i to fly there for the weekend.  our children were finally introduced to their new homeland, complete with rider-nation pandamonia, and perfectly falling snowflakes - one of which Olivia found shaped as a five-pointed star.  we were given a home to live in, a van to drive, tickets to a winter light show, incredible amounts of love and support and hugs, a fantastic lunch by a kindred spirit, beautiful growing friendship, a job my husband is loving, long embraces and promised prayers and purposed psalms, and the list goes on. 

advent is here, the season of joy and longing all muddled together, and it seems like perfect timing. 

scott pointed me toward this reading by Henri Nouwen, and i've been looking forward to sharing it with you all.  I have changed a few tenses at the end...but i don't think henri would mind.

people who wait have received a promise that allows them to wait.  they have received something that is at work in them, like a seed that has started to grow.  this is very important.  we can only really wait if what we are waiting for has already begn for us.  so waiting is never a movement from nothing to something.  it is always a movement from something to something more...a promise that nurtures you, that feeds you and that makes you able to stay where you are.  and in this way, the promise itself can grow in you and for you.

as Eugene Peterson says in his paraphrase of Romans 8:  we are enlarged in the waiting.

so my prayer for us in this advent season:  that God's promises for our lives would grow in us and enlarge us. 

i don't want to exit this time stunted and skinny with pessimism and anger as my only food.  i want to grow in thankfulness and honesty and hope and love.  i want to hit Christmas day with more joy and celebration then ever before, despite my circumstances. 

shall we enlarge together?