United Methodist Women Advent Reflection – Making Room

NEW YORK

Each day of the 2016 Advent Season will be filled with reflections and devotionals written by United Methodist Women staff, board of directors, and Program Advisory Board members and can be found on the United Methodist Women website. The following essay is written by Chantilly Mers, United Methodist Women Seminar Designer.

Months before our daughter was born, my husband and I got to work preparing for her arrival. We live in a small apartment in the Bronx, which forced us to make room with the little we had. We swept out every nook and cranny and parted with things that had collected dust. We moved furniture in and moved others out. It felt like our entire lives were being rearranged, from our budget to work schedules, church responsibilities, and social lives. Not to mention all the work my body was doing to make room for her! All this work to accommodate this teeny tiny being.

When Zechariah sings this hymn over his son, he knew his life and Elizabeth’s would never be the same. Not only was John a miracle baby, he was destined to be a prophet. John would be the one “to go before the Lord and prepare his way” (Luke 1:76). This charge was a cosmic one. It meant rearranging the social, economic, and political realities in order to make room for the kind of salvation the Messiah would usher in.

Herein lies the mystery of Advent and its mystical nature. The dawn of salvation did not begin and end with the birth of Jesus thousands of years ago. The light of salvation is still breaking into the darkness of our lives and that of the world. We are being summoned with the same profound love and prophetic edge to rearrange the world for Emmanuel to make his home with us.               

I offer this version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” arranged by Rosie Thomas, as a musical meditation while we ask the following questions of ourselves:
What needs to be swept out or rearranged in our personal lives to make room for Emmanuel?
How are we as a church preparing the world for the Christ-child to make his home with us?
Is our world a home he would want to return to?

An Advent prayer:
God, remind us to make room for the mystical, peculiar, and beautiful ways you will show up during this season. For You, we wait. Amen.

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United Methodist Women is the largest denominational faith organization for women, turning faith, hope, and love into action on behalf of women, children, and youth for nearly 150 years.

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Contact: Yvette Moore, ymoore@unitedmethodistwomen.org