Be Alert

Sunday, November 29, 2015                                         Luke 21:25-36

Guy Griffith

“Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)

Our text from Luke reminds us that Advent is a season of active waiting. Of preparations not just of our homes but of our lives for the advent of Emmanuel. But in the deep darkness of the world, that Light is often hard to see and the wait seems long. A number of years ago on the first Sunday of Advent I was driving out of my neighborhood in Illinois meditating on the passage from Isaiah read that morning in church. It inspired these lines.

Illinois Advent

Willows still weep in November wind

Numbed green-gone-gold along a goose-gone pond

Waving loose-limbed goodbyes as Advent commences.

Waiting as deep darkness winds around

The houses and diminished fields once fond

Of tasseled corn.  What are the chances

That into this tear-stained, earth-toned

Flatness with stalk stubble and track homes bond

Built, the trees – even those behind the fences –

Will clap their hands to remind

Those whose souls are blacker still that yond

Morning Star, with night splitting light, advances?      GDG

As you go about your days, find ways in which you can “watch at all times” and be aware of the Light of Christ, the Morning Star, who advances on this dark world.

Prayer: Lord God, keep me alert and fill me with joy and light, no matter what my circumstances or that of the world might be. I pray in your Son's name, Amen.