A = ALMOST

 

From a children’s perspective the Advent season is one of building energy and excitement and the excitement is expressed in questions:

 

·      Is it time to open the day’s tab on the Advent calendar? Mum’s answer: “Almost”

·      Is it time to take the cookies out of the oven? Mum’s answer: “Almost”

·      Is it time to bring down the decorations from the attic?... Mum’s answer: “Almost”

·      Is it time to go to get the tree? Mum’s answer: “Almost”

·      Is it time to open gifts? Mum’s answer:  “Almost”

 

As kids learn to tell time I think there is also a course for parents, am and pm in parent time is taught to answer “almost” and “not yet.”

 

Almost bides time. We do that during this season of Advent, biding time until the celebration of Christmas.

 

Almost will be replaced with that wonderful answer of “YES.”  For persons long waiting and individuals always coming close yet never fully there…. the Advent season is the universal YES to creation, to communities of faith, to individuals. 

 

The journey of Advent can be summed up in five words: Almost.  Yes.  Now.  Let’s go!

A little bit on hope

 

It seems to be a pattern, the morning, I’m boiling water for oatmeal, NPR on the radio in the kitchen, and I hear this line: “so many hopes and dreams were smashed and rearranged.”  

 

To smash something involves a focused force, an unforeseen drop of a fragile thing, one of those moments when there is a discernible and distinct pause, a holding of one’s breath before the hit and the shatter and the scatter of pieces. Depending on the sentimental and, I suppose, monetary value of the item and severity of the break, one might gather the pieces and rearrange them, glue them back together….or, determine it's not worth the effort and throw it away.

 

Hopes rearranged are the stuff of tv movies of the week and memoirs that get Oprah’s seal. At the foundation of the rearranging is a hope you can’t toss out. In many instances those types of hopes are the ones we reserve for children and maybe some relationships, ideas and ideals of community, freedom, democracy, church.

 

To rearrange that which has been smashed takes time and precision, one really has to want to put it back together and the effort it takes can become obsessive and it’s tiring, stretches the muscles, strains the eyes, makes some people ask why are you wasting your time.

 

Though brittle and in times surprisingly breakable, hopes and dreams have a buoyancy to them, they keep afloat.  Yet, during these days of wars and rumors of war, an empire nearing collapse, othering everyone who is not like us, widening gaps between wealthy and poor I recall the song lyric, “where hope is currency.”   What can one buy with hope currency? Do we save it for a bigger investment? Is it possible to spend it foolishly and if so when does one realize it? Is hope the coin of our realm? 

....and how are the children?

 

“….and how are the children?”  

There are cultures where this question is asked upon meeting a friend, gathering in homes, the opener for worship services.   I suggest we make this question “….and how are the children?" be foundational, a must ask at every budget meeting on every level in every institution and at each policy meeting and commissioner planning session and stewardship drive and scripture study.  With that question “….and how are the children?” before us at the start and re-minded throughout the meeting and gathering perhaps we will be wiser, kinder, gentler, saner.

 

Let us try it on a personal and small-scale way.  

 

By children I mean the ones we birth and bear (up and with); little ones who share our name our genes our hopes; the ones we call by name; the kids we pass on our way to work as they wait for the school bus; the ones who get their names in the paper for athletic, educational or artistic achievement; those whose names and images accompany news of their murder; those who are always a significant portion of those described as “innocent casualties.”

 

As the horrors of war shock our screens…..ask the question….demand an answer……..ask it often to those who have the power to answer in ways that can stop the killing, the hunger, the harm.

 

“….and how are the children?”