with every year that passes i come to love advent more and more.
growing up it was part of my catholic upbringing. when you are little it is the coolest thing because they choose children to help light the wreath and you too could be cool enough to play with fire at church. as you keep growing up it looses its meaning, it's just 5 candles of different colors. then you, well at least, i started associating advent with can't have that much fun til christmas, we're waiting.
in my teens i started attending an interdenominational church. they also did the wreath during advent - every advent season was celebrated at this "non-catholic" church - madness! this is where i learned that the four candles on the outside represent the 400 years of silence between the old and new testament. the candles are purple as this is the color that represents waiting. hope, peace, joy, and love. except that the joy candle is pink - glimmer of hope as the waiting is coming to an end. then the middle candle is white, the birth. at this stage of my life it was nice to remember what this all meant and even funner to watch the kids beg to light a candle...
then i kept growing up.
and i kept falling in love with jesus.
the god who is in me.
the god who is with me.
emmanuel
god with us.
the idea of the incarnation is fascinating to me. that the all knowing, all powerful, and eternal god loved us so much that decided to be with us. to be with me. to inhabit earth as one of us... born through a birth cannal... crass, yes, and real.
the redeemer that israel had been waiting for so long was about to show up in the most unexpected form.
they didn't know when, or how, or who...
yet they prayed and waited - with hope that this messiah would come
last week i read
this with two beautiful friends, a reminder of israel's reality while in exile, a parallel with the expectant nation at the time of the birth of jesus, a parallel of my right here and right now...
and this song makes more sense as the years go by...
veni, veni, emmanuel
captivum solve israel,
qui gemit in exsilio,
privatus dei filio.
gaude! gaude! emmanuel,
nascetur pro te israel!
veni, veni o oriens,
solare nos adveniens,
noctis depelle nebulas,
dirasque mortis tenebras.
gaude! gaude! emmanuel,
nascetur pro te israel!
veni, clavis davidica,
regna reclude caelica,
fac iter tutum superum,
et claude vias inferum.
gaude! gaude! emmanuel,
nascetur pro te israel!
~~~~~~
o come, o come, emmanuel,
and ransom captive israel,
that morns in lonely exile here
until the son of god appear.
rejoice! rejoice! emmanuel,
to thee shall come o israel!
o come, thou dayspring from on high,
and cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death's dark shadow put to flight.
rejoice! rejoice! emmanuel,
to thee shall come o israel!
o come, thou key of david, come,
and open wide our heav'nly home,
make safe the way that leads on high,
that we no more have cause to sigh.
rejoice! rejoice! emmanuel,
to thee shall come o israel!
