In the Meantime

The greening of the church . . . that wonderful time when the scent of fresh pine mingles with the accumulated treasures of generations in dressing the church up for Advent . . .

I love the decorating, the gathering of community, the transformation, but it wasn’t until today that I connected what we’re doing so directly with our anticipation of the coming of Jesus. . . that I saw the greening of the church as an act of waiting-for-Messiah hope . . .

Dressing the church in the green of life is like waiting for spring in the dead of winter while  enacting it in the meantime.

That’s what it is to anticipate Jesus . . . waiting, but enacting him in the meantime.