Dear Kaleid Ladies,
Blessings on this third Sunday of Advent! We hope you can receive God’s gift of Sabbath rest to you today, even if it feels like rest is meant for everyone else but you this time of year!
Hope
Peace
Joy
Love
These are the soul-filling words of Advent that make space in our heart for the arrival of the Savior. We wait in hope. We watch in peace.
And today we wonder.
Today we light the candle of Joy. It is a pink candle that is unique from the three purple candles on the Advent wreath. The surprising pink joy candle reminds us to be on the lookout for the unexpected and beautiful inbreaking of God into the world.
Joy matters because sorrow pierces our hearts. When we have cause to mourn and grieve because of human losses, our hearts hurt. Joy reminds us that our hearts are also still capable of song, of delight, and of gladness.
David Steindl-Rast, an Austrian Benedictine monk who came of age under Hitler’s rule calls joy “the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” To receive God’s gift of joy we adopt a posture of wonder.
Steindle-Rast offers a guide to wonder and to joy.
He says that first we stop. To notice. To be where we are and to see what there is to see…in our inner world and in our outer world.
Then we behold. We allow what God is doing in our immediate world to catch our attention. We look for the beauty or grace or care that God is nurturing right before our eyes and allow it to capture our focus. We see.
And finally, we go. We take a few moments to enter into the gift of whatever we are beholding with an attitude of wonder. We allow ourselves to commune with God through the unexpected—the proverbial pink candle—that God has revealed to our eyes and our heart.
In our wondering, we cultivate joy. In our wondering, we practice Advent, which means “arrival.” We receive the arrival of God into our world.
As we wonder…
We recognize the love of the Father in our tangible reality, and we rejoice.
We remember that Jesus is God with us, and we rejoice.
We receive the comfort of the Spirit in our complicated places, and we rejoice.
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” - Nehemiah 8:10
May your wonder lead to joy today. And may that joy nourish and strengthen you for the journey. May that joy cause you to look up and remember the God who came and who is here now, in all the unexpected and wonderful ways.
We close today with the words of a poem by St. Thomas Aquinas.
Light of lights! All gloom dispelling,
Thou didst come to make they dwelling
Here within our world of sight.
Lord, in pity and in power,
Thou didst in our darkest hour
Rend the clouds and show thy light.
Praise to thee in earth and heaven
Now and evermore be given,
Christ, who art our sun and shield.
Lord, for us thy life thou gavest,
Those who trust in thee thou savest,
All thy mercy stands revealed.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. Here are some verses on joy for you to enjoy!