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| textile artist Linda Witte Henke http://bit.ly/1kbhzLp |
O Radix Jesse: "O Root of Jesse, O Flower of Jesse's stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid."We spend a good deal of our lives waiting – in line, for family members to get ready for a trip, the bus, on line at the grocery store … waiting for the weekend to come … waiting for someone to come through a cold or an operation … waiting on a vacation … sometimes the waiting is filled with dread and sometimes we joyfully anticipate the happy conclusion of our waiting. The celebration of waiting is what Advent is about. Whether we are conscious of it or not, each of us, at some level, is waiting for God, even while we celebrate the coming of Messiah, especially as we spend time with God during God's daily visitations into our lives.
Isaiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of God.”
During this season we are drawn into this spiritual dimension of that continual human cycle of waiting: recognition of want, longing, fulfillment, and the return and deepening of our waiting and desire. This is not a matter of going around in circles, but of moving in a kind of spiral, always more deeply integrated into God's life. God's Spirit fills us with the longing that makes it possible for us to wait more steadily and with more hope for new manifestations of God's presence in our lives. And our Spirit-filled longing helps us live JOYfull-ly trusting that in Christ, God will fulfill the desires of our hearts.
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