Liturgical Nerds

Growing up, I was fortunate that my father didn’t have to travel much.  But when he did, we would go to the airport and walk him to the gate (which you could do in those days) and watch him get on board the plane. And we’d be disappointed and sad…until we came back a few days later to pick him up. While we excitedly waited, we would watch the airplanes take off and land, and we just waited for the best one of all—the one that had Dad on board.

I think about those memories at that this time of year because Advent means “coming”…or as I like to think, “arrival.” Watching those airplanes take off and land was a sight to behold. When we watched the space shuttle land on TV, we would always marvel at the “flying brick,” and then breathe a sigh of relief because the astronauts were safely home. The best arrivals are the ones you’ve been waiting for—and that carry a cargo of love.

So as we draw ever closer to the mysteriously wonderful celebration of Christmas Eve—for what arrival are you waiting? Is it the closeness of family and friends? The lights on trees and houses? The cold breath of winter? The rush and fury of packages being opened? A day where illness or pain might be put aside? The return of a loved one?

One of my favorite Advent readings is from Isaiah 64:1 “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” The prophet is eagerly, impatiently, passionately pleading with God to arrive, to be on the move, to get going, to turn the world right-side-up again. He knows things aren’t as they should be…and trusts that God, infinitely good and compassionate, can and will make it right.

It isn’t easy to trust God that much. But I continue to trust that God’s arrival—in Bethlehem, in our hearts today, and in the time to come—will be shown to be right on time.