Advent

As the season of Advent approaches, we prepare to celebrate God’s generous gift to the world in the birth of Jesus.

We prepare by decorating homes, stringing lights, and lighting candles against the darkness of longer nights.  The light of the world is being born, and the darkness of the world will not overcome it.

We prepare by planning meals, travel and visits, and watching our favorite holiday movies (It’s A Wonderful Life is just one of the annual movies to be watched at our house this month). 

We prepare by being generous: sending cards to family and friends, making and buying gifts for loved ones, and giving money to the numerous groups who work year round to give a hand to people who have had tough breaks in life.

On All Saints Day this past year, I found myself thinking especially of my maternal Grandmother, Donna Harper, who died in 1998.  When I was growing up, I would often receive two kinds of Christmas gifts from my grandparents.  The first would be a toy I wanted, and the second would be a donation given in my name to a cause that worked to alleviate poverty, or to promote justice and conservation.  The package I unwrapped would include information about the people who would benefit, and a note of recognition.

At the time, you may guess that I paid more attention to the toy than to the donation.  But today, I remember the donations, not the toys, that she and Grandpa gave me.  In these gifts, they also gave me a moral compass, and this ingrained value: that we are responsible to each other in this world.  These were gifts to remember.