Elizabeth's Expressions for December

Hello Church Family,

Advent is upon us, beginning with the Hanging of the Greens on November 27th.  I look forward to participating in this important YCUCC tradition.  Christmas is full of family and church traditions that help guide and ground us during this season of seeking and celebrating. 

I remember making advent wreaths as a family, lighting each candle at the dinner table as a child, and then with my own children when they were younger.  It gave us time as a family to ponder what was ahead: Christmas.  

We have used a family advent calendar with stuffed shapes that go on a Christmas tree. This marks the time for us to know when Christmas is upon us. I discovered an Advent book, All Creation Waits, by Gayle Boss. Each day an essay and woodcarving remind us how creation responds to darkness and light. The book begins with this quote:

“Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spend enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature” —Meister Eckhart

Advent reminds us that as we wait, we do God’s work, the work of the church. The work of building a beloved community for all God’s Creation.

Advent ends with Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’s birth, the Prince of Peace. The birth reminds us that we are all created in God’s image, and it is up to us to use God’s transformational love to create God’s beloved community on Earth. 

I look forward to this advent as we wait and watch together for Jesus’ birth.

Peace in God’s Love

Pastor Elizabeth