from my latest church newsletter article.

It's been too long since I've made an entry here, my camera is still broken and for some reason I just don't think to blog if I don't have a picture to go with it. I'm going to get that issue fixed soon. If anyone still reads this blog, I promise it will be better soon.

It feels like fall is really here. I hope you’ve been enjoying these wonderful crisp days as we begin to make the plunge into winter. The fall colors this year have been spectacular, yellows and oranges, bright and golden, even the dirty brown alder leaves that clutter my yard, beautiful. It’s here in this intermediary time you can feel warm rays of the sun, reminiscent of summer days, and the cool almost sharply cold wind with a hint of winter in its wings. There is something powerful in watching the season change, especially now as the land around us prepares for its winter slumber.
In the church year we look forward to the season of Advent. A time of longing and preparing for the coming of the promised one, Jesus Christ, for the very presence of God in the flesh among us. Advent is one of those special times in the church year when we suspend our knowing, and enter the drama or the story of waiting for God to break into the world in a powerful and mighty way in the person of Jesus. Yes, we know the Christmas story, there is little need for a “spoiler alert”. Yet, we put that aside and allow ourselves to be caught up in it all, allow ourselves to look inside and to the world around to find where God’s Word is working. We enter the longing for healing and wholeness, for God’s very presence in our lives.