By Lilly Lewin
The season of Advent is here and we are also preparing for Christmas. We are decorating trees and homes with festive lights and greenery. We get ready with shopping, baking, sending cards and hosting parties. But how do we get our selves ready for the arrival of Jesus? As December begins how are you getting ready for the Baby King?
When you prepare for a baby you have to get a lot of stuff ready…the room, all the diapers, the car seat, all the special gear necessary. Your house changes, you have less space because the baby stuff takes up lots of room. Your focus changes. Whether you are adopting or hatching a baby, you begin to focus your life around this little person soon to arrive. And once that person arrives on the scene you no longer need a TV because all you want to do is watch what he or she does. When a baby enters the world your time is no longer your own…now you have to think about the needs of someone else. You have to consider how what you do will affect the baby. Even before a baby is born the mom must consider what she eats, drinks and how she cares for herself.
What if we see the coming of Baby Jesus into our lives like this?
Like getting ready for a new arrival in our lives. Getting ready for a baby.
What would this look like?
How do you make space for Baby Jesus?
How do you get ready for his birth into your world?
Do you have to get rid of stuff?
Do you need to add special gear?
Do you need to prepare mentally or change your attitude?
What does this look like?
Consider this today.
Talk to God about this.
How can you receive the gift of Jesus as a baby, a baby who needs your time and attention.
Are you and I willing to accept that gift?
What are you willing to do to get ready for Baby Jesus?
How are you willing to change your life in order to give baby Jesus the attention and care he needs?
Consider this today and in the days ahead this December.
Talk to God about how you can receive and prepare for Baby Jesus!
If you don’t have a baby in your world at the moment as a physical reminder, find something to remind you to make room in your life for Baby Jesus. Maybe it’s a sippy cup or a bottle on your desk or bedside table. Maybe it’s a baby blanket or toy. Use this symbol to help you make space in your life for the Baby Jesus and prepare him room this Advent.
*This is one of the prayer stations found in the Christmas Incarnation Sacred Space Prayer Experience. You can download this at freerangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
As the beginning of Advent approaches, I wanted to share this prayer and Advent meditation video again. I wrote them ten years ago but as I watched it this morning felt that it was as powerful today as it was then. Jeff Johnson’s beautiful music really makes this a restful and centering prayer. I do pray that you will make time in your day to rest, refresh and recenter yourself as you watch it.
by Christine Sine
As Advent approaches and we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ let us remember the image of God within us and the promise of newness and wholeness that the birth of Christ brings.
It is a time when many of us want to find peace and quiet amidst the wild flurry of Christmas preparation. Find time and space today to watch to this video. Breathe deeply of the peace of God and rest your soul in preparation for the coming of the Christ child.
By Mary DeJong —
This is a practice of remembering, remembering and reacquainting with the presence and names of the plant-life within one’s homescape (1). This is a time when the seasons’ reveal who shows up and who has been there all along but whose shape has shifted as the months turn. This is an invitation to transform a stranger into a Thou by the practice of learning and saying their name. This is a process of knowing so that respect and love can emerge and transform how we live upon the land, for it has been said that one cannot love what one does not know.
Beyond the beauty that emerges from the creation of a nature mandala, there are deep truths, profound invitations, and mythopoetic metaphor that reside within the design as well. To discover these aspects, it is well worth the time to discover the names and characteristics of those with whom we share our landscapes—you may find you reconnect with neighbors in the process! When I was collecting plants for my November mandala, I could see the orange orbs of my neighbor’s persimmons above the tall fence across from my home. Sadly, this fence has created a sense of disconnection between our families. However, my desire for one of those persimmons for my mandala was strong enough that I quickly devised a plan that would hopefully find this fruit not only in my basket but also strengthen neighborly relationships. I went to my cupboard for a quart of raspberry lavender preserves, put up this summer from our yard’s bounty. My daughter and I crossed the street, basket and jar in hand, and unlatched our neighbor’s gate. In response to our knock on the door, our Cambodian neighbor Bhun answered, accepted our jar of jam in exchange for some of his persimmon fruit! Despite our language barrier, the joy of sharing the fruit of our land as neighbors was mutual.
——
The accompanying practice of naming the natural elements that form the mandala exercise the sense of seeing. You will find that once your mandala is complete, you will begin seeing the selected plants all around you! This is the beginning of a vital and fun interrelationship with creation; there is so much to learn from the natural world when we allow it to be our teacher!
My November mandala was created with the following plants, trees, and fruit found within my homescape, all of whom have much to offer by way of food, medicine, or cross-cultural understanding:
- Nootka Rose hips (Rose nutka)
- Japanese Painted fern (Athyrium niponicum)
- Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
- Pacific western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
- Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
- Common Sage (Salvia officinalis)
- American beauty berry (Callicarpa americana)
- Purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria)
- Japanese Persimmon (Diospyros kaki)
- Witch Hazel (Hamamelis)
- Wood sorel (Oxalis)
- Red and Yellow twigged dogwood (Cornus alba)
- Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea)
1. I define homescape as the natural landscape that makes up one’s home—yard, neighborhood, even local parks and open spaces. These are critical natural areas that create habitat for a whole community of life with whom we interact. Learning about our homescapes invites us into more intentional knowledge and understanding of those with whom we share life and resources.
By Mary DeJong —
“Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are.”
-José Ortega y Gasset
I am in a forest phase of my life, where soul growth is related to both deep rootedness and profound interconnection. When we enter a forest phase in our lives we enter a period of rooting and a time of potential soul growth. Here it is possible to find what we have been cut off from, to remember once vital aspects of ourselves that required an interdependence with the natural world. We may uncover a wellspring of creativity and Sacred connection that has been hidden for some time underneath the trappings of a busy and overly domesticated life. In this time of recovering my more wild self, my understanding of who I am is expanding to use an ecological lens to discern meaning through interconnected relationships and a deeply presenced place. I find that what is driving my soul growth and understanding of holy mysteries are the questions: How do we be “of a place” once more? How do we become apart of the ecology of a place and of the planet? The answers to these questions come through a growing attunement to the rhythmic seasons of the natural world, and the phases of the wonder-filled sky, which ultimately invite me into insight and knowledge of myself and how I experience God.
Picture Description: Finding the seasonal color within the natural world begins to awaken the senses and is a fun activity for children! Here Mary’s daughter Anna finds and picks American Beauty Berry (Callicarpa Americana) for their November Monthly Mandala. (photo credit: Mary DeJong)
Irish theologian and philosopher John Scotus Eriugena understood that Christ was revealed through two forms of revelation: scripture and the natural world. He believed that “Christ wears “two shoes” in the world: scripture and nature. Both are necessary to understand the Lord, and at no stage can creation be seen as a separation of things from God.” I want to establish rhythms and personal practices that honor and cultivate richer connections with the interrelated biological and cosmic systems that have meaningfully existed for billions of years as a way to root my sense of self and the Sacred in the very real soil of my daily existence. I want to learn from the sacred scripture of creation.
I have started doing monthly nature mandalas as a spiritual practice, as a way of developing a framework for exercising my senses to awaken to the Sacred wisdom that resides within nature. Theophanies, or God-showings-are synchronistic signs that reveal significance and meaning, as well as reveal something of the character of God. By going outside to co-create a nature mandala, I have sought to develop the capacity to receive Divine symbols and experience the mysterious presence of God within the natural world. This practice, while relatively easy, has become a way that I attune to who else is residing and growing in my garden. As I slowly walk around my house and neighborhood, I begin to see with fresh eyes the vast biodiversity with whom I live.
Celtic Spirituality reminds us of our abiding interconnection with the natural world, and a perspective of God that allows for the Sacred to be completely imminent and within the other-than-human world. This mandala practice aims to provide a structure that supports my spiritual growth while acknowledging that this cannot happen isolated and independently within solely human practices and traditions. Spiritual director Marjorie Thompson maintains that within the patterns of “routine, regular, and repeated” practice one will discover transformation. In her words I see the invitation to seasonal rhythms that occur in nature and indeed, that the monthly nature mandala practice is a way that I can continue to grow and form my spiritual life.
Searching for and discovering seasonal plants, herbs, and fruits is a true visual delight! Once the natural items have been assembled, the creative mandala practice can begin. (photo credit: Mary DeJong)
Our November mandala is complete!
We cleared a circle within our Paper birch leaves (Betula papyrifera) to create the foundation for our mandala. My practice is to build the mandala around the four cardinal directions, which also correspond to the four season, and build into the design elements of twelve, which correspond to the twelve months of the year. (Photo credit: Mary DeJong)
by Christine Sine
The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8,9 The Voice)
This week my focus is on how we grow joy in God’s world, with the emphasis on God’s created world. Celtic Christians believed that creation was translucent and that the glory of God shone through it, so as I take inspiration from Celtic Advent this year, it isn’t surprising that I want to spend a good chunk of time reflecting on creation. Predictably it was Genesis 2:8,9 that came to mind, and especially this beautiful translation. God created our world to be a place of utter delight where all created life flourishes and praises God with its luxuriant beauty. God’s delight, God’s joy is a flourishing creation bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. It is good to remind ourselves of this as we move towards Christmas and the joy of Christ’s birth.
How do we ensure that this garden of delight that God desires to see whole and healthy, flourishes I wonder? It seems that we do more to destroy and pollute it than to preserve and grow it.
Once again as I thought about this, the circle motif came to my mind. This symbol of wholeness and completeness is, as I talked about last week, repeated over and over again in nature. It is as though it stands as a constant reminder of God’s desire for wholeness and flourishing.
Some of my reflections have revolved around my creation of this succulent mandala. Like many of my friends, I have become a little obsessed with succulents lately and part of that passion is seeing how many of them I can propagate from leaves. My hope is that they will, in the next couple of months, burst into life and luxuriant beauty.
The circle of the mandala is symbolic for me of the circle of our world. It too is meant to be whole and pregnant with life, a place where we plant and nurture and grow with expectant joy and anticipation until all is flourishing and fruitful. I chose as many different shapes and colours as I could to create my mandala, reminding myself of the rich diversity of God’s creation. At the centre is a succulent that has already begun to grow, symbolic of the tree of life at the centre of God’s garden. As I spread out my succulent leaves I prayed for the places and people in our world devastated by the impact of climate change. I prayed for those who work to reverse this devastation and I prayed too for those who are indifferent for it.
My reflections focus too on the God who created that first garden with such obvious joy and I wonder what we can do as we celebrate this God coming into our world in the person of Jesus Christ, to to preserve, to grow and encourage flourishing. As I thought about this I added the string of pearls around the centre, reminding me of the pearl of great value whose birthday we are soon to celebrate.
You may not be into succulents, but I am sure that there is some way that you can connect to God’s garden of utter delight at this season. Pause for a few to consider what you could do. You might like to use the suggestions below to stir your own creativity.
Spend Time in Creation This Advent Season.
So many of our Christmas symbols are from the natural world – wreaths and trees, holly and mistletoe. Here are some thoughts on how to connect to God’s garden world and grow you joy in creation as Christ’s birth approaches
- Visit a Christmas tree farm with your family or friends and bring home a live tree, or better yet consider a living tree that you can either keep for many years to come of plant out in your garden as an ongoing reminder of God’s love of creation
- Create a living wreath for your house – succulents are great for this, though pine branches and cones also make an excellent wreath that will survive well throughout the season. In the southern hemisphere, poinsettias, waratahs, or proteas would be good alternatives.
- Plant bulbs either inside, like Amaryllis or outside in expectation of daffodils, tulips and crocuses bursting through the soil in a couple of months.
- Visit an outdoor Advent spiral or labyrinth or Christmas tree lighting. So much of what we do at this season (at least in the northern hemisphere) tends to be inside. Consider ways that you can take some of the celebrations of Christmas outside this year. Perhaps we can even learn from our southern hemisphere friends many of whom will spend Christmas on the beach. A good walk along a windswept beach is energizing and at least for me, pregnant with the joy of Christmas.
Simplify, Recycle and and Give the Earth A Break.
The average Americans will spend over $1,000 on Christmas this year, often giving gifts no one wants and preparing food we would do better not to consume (says she who has just made her first batch of Scottish shortbread and other goodies for the season.) So we need to think about alternative ways to celebrate without breaking the bank of quenching our joy. I have talked before about ways to simplify at Christmas and many of us want to but find it hard to put the brakes on. I have also talked about some alternative suggestions that help kids give back at Christmas.
Here are a few more suggestions that you might like to consider.
- Give a gift of fun. Plan a game night, make something party or special outing like a play date or a visit to your favourite scenic spot to your special friends.
- Plan a gratitude scavenger hunt. Plan a gratitude party with friends. At the end of the meal get each person to share three things they are grateful that relate to how Christ has impacted their lives.
- Go carol singing around the neighbourhood. When was the last time carol singers came to your door. This is a dying tradition that can bring much joy to us and to our neighbours.
- Have a recycle Christmas. Most of us have enough left overs from DIY projects to make something for everyone on our shopping list. Have a DIY party where people bring leftover items to recycle into new projects.
- Buy locally. Most of our towns have artisans who would love you to buy their products. Find the best Christmas fairs in your neighbourhood and take your family and friends.
- Plant a tree (or a forest). You might want to physically go out and plant trees or donate to an organization that plants trees in devastated and polluted parts of our world.
Happy Friday! At our house we are on the third dishwasher filling and enjoying turkey leftovers after a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with family and friends last night. I stay home on Black Friday and keep Thanksgiving going a bit longer. We don’t start decorating for Christmas til after Thanksgiving, usually not until December 1st. But I do start Advent early using the Celtic/Eastern Orthodox dates to get me started preparing my heart for the baby king.
As you have some time this weekend, consider how you want to spend Advent this year. Traditional Advent starts December 3rd so you have some time to prepare.
Do you need to add some quiet to your life? Do you need to say NO to some things in order to say YES to better things? Are there new traditions you’d like to start to help you keep the season?
Start with Music! What music draws you into the season? It may not be the holly jolly Christmas tunes they started playing at the grocery store right after Halloween. Take a few minutes to consider the music that draws you closer to God. You might make an Advent Play List to have on your computer or phone to listen to in the days ahead. One of our traditions is going to hear Handel’s “Messiah” each year and when we can, we find a “Messiah” sing along and join in! First performed in Dublin in April 1742, Handel brings the gospel of Isaiah to life and helps me engage the season of Advent. If you haven’t heard this amazing music check it out on youtube.
What about Art? Another way I prepare my heart is through art and scripture. Vanderbilt Divinity School has a great lectionary page that includes a link to ART that goes with the weekly scripture passages. You might use these works of art as a daily focus for your prayer time during Advent.
Try Photography and Technology: I love taking pictures and in the past couple of years I have used photography as prayer practice for Advent. I’ve really enjoyed participating by posting a photo according to the daily theme. There are two places you can find the lists of the themes for the day and you can post on facebook, instagram and twitter. You might even get your whole community, small group or youth group to join you in this! Check out these websites and sign up for daily reminders. Even if you don’t take pictures yourself, you can follow the hashtags and see the photos taken by people around the world.
Life Enrichment Center does #pictureAdvent
http://lecfamily.org/advent/ #pictureAdvent
LECFamily is the intergenerational program ministry of the Life Enrichment Center, a retreat and conference center of :the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Society of Saint John the Evangelism does #adventword
http://adventword.org/sign-up/ #adventword
Finally, Pray as You Go has mini retreats you can take via your computer or smart phone. They have an app you can download and use as a prayer tool throughout the year, not just for Advent. For Advent this year they are doing something special. Check out this video and then follow them as Advent begins. https://youtu.be/m7Ak5bvDRSM
I am grateful for so many resources here at godspace and for the gift of technology that can connect us to things like digital retreats and art and music from around the world and from across the ages! In the midst of all the craziness and negativity, I want to help us all connect to the positive things on the internet and see how we can use the internet to engage God. So give it a try! I’d love to hear how you prepare for Advent and the arrival of Jesus this year!
I’d love to hear how you prepare for Advent and the arrival of Jesus this year!
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