Advent in a Global Pandemic

These have been dark days in 2020, even in the light of spring and summer. Those spared great personal suffering and pain haven’t lived under such ominous clouds since the aftermath of 9/11. And the anxieties of a slow-moving pandemic, in a highly contentious election year, has cast a longer, and perhaps darker, shadow than even those grave days.

Now we come to the cusp of December — and winter. Dark days get darker. And Advent begins today, not a day too soon, just in time to declare the message we too often ignore: in the very darkest of days, the true light shines out all the brighter.

Advent, the season of waiting and preparation before the high feast of Christmas, is a chance to regain spiritual sanity, and create fresh and healthier rhythms personally and as a family and as churches. As we enter the six darkest weeks of the year in this hemisphere, we will pivot midway to mark the greatest and brightest turning point in all history: the birth of Christ. And perhaps this Advent will begin restoring what the locusts have taken this year.

The rest of the article can be read HERE.