December 11

Beloved of Good Shepherd Church,

Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!

Advent’s great challenge is a call to slow down and be quiet as we wait patiently with Mary, the mother of our Lord, for the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Sometimes it seems like the only voices that are heard in the world are the loud ones, the ones that cry out about the darkness and despair, the argumentative voices, and the voices that insist that they are right. Meanwhile the voice of love is quiet. You see, “love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” Loud voices are usually loud because they represent the insecurity and fear of the speaker. Love is commonly quiet if not silent because love is the ground and source of all that is; there is no insecurity or fear in love. There is only light and life and hope. 

Love is like a wild, quiet animal that is seldom seen in the forest because I go stomping loudly down the path taking little notice of my surroundings. Advent invites me to move slowly and quietly through the wilderness of my own life for the few, short weeks that lead to Christmas, so that I can see where love surfaces soundlessly in the midst of the shouting, busy business of December. 

Love is not envious because it doesn’t lack anything. You see, love is all. Love is not boastful because the only boast any of us really has is that we are loved. Love is not arrogant because the arrogant always springs from fear and there is no fear in love. Love is not rude because love only sees the good in you and is simply blind to anything in you that might be critiqued. 

Advent issues a gracious invitation to a quiet, slow party at which love is the honored guest. Let’s look for the curious animal love in the wild of the marketplace, then imitate love as we walk slowly to Christmas. Let go of envy, boasting, arrogance, and any impulse to rudeness for we have love, and truly, love is all.

Remember this always - God loves you, and I love you too!

Love is all, 

Hendree+