Advent reflections

Hurry hurry hurry to be slow! This is That Week for moms everywhere - the one where we all long desperately to live up to our resolve to go slow and savor the graces and moment-by-moment beauties but wherein seeming reality strikes hard and can shatter that peace and the focus on what Advent really means as we yearn backward toward the glories of Eden, toward the incomprehensible violence that the manger does to our self-suffiency, and forward toward the restoration on Christ's return.  

So I am struggling along with all of you to stay there in that Reality instead of the frantic pace I am more apt to set for myself.  Part of the beauty is that even if I fail big, and then fail harder, that Reality doesn't splinter or shift but remains truth and I am secure so even my striving to have sincere focus isn't the hinge on which family joy rests.  Jesus is the hinge of my family's joy -  not me. 

So I sit quietly in the evenings, putting away the busy work and instead resting in the repetitive back and forth of the needles along these little mittens and feeling joy at the idea of little hands encased inside.

One week until Christmas Eve, friends.  Be struck with the wonder of all the complexities of His birth, from the shock of God in a feed trough and diapers to the upside down of the ceremonially unclean shepherds receiving the first invitation to see God in flesh.  Grace and peace to you all.

Joining the Yarn Along crowd over at Ginny's blog today!