Post Number Seventeen

A New Perspective On Advent

Last night Terry asked me a question common to this time of year.  "What do you want for Christmas?"  I have answered this question every year of my life with no difficulty.  In fact, I usually anticipate the question and am ready with a list that I can recite when the question comes.  I am careful in preparing my answer that it not be too extravagant in order that my request not be dismissed out of hand.  I learned a long time ago that when it comes to Christmas gift requests it is best to soft peddle one's true desire.  My strategy has been to allow the giver room to exceed my stated expectations.  It is much better to appear pleasantly surprised than to appear mildly disappointed.  This has been my strategy in the past.  It cannot be my strategy this year.

Last night, when the question came once again, I was caught unprepared.  I could not think of a thing.  There was no object that could be wrapped and placed under a tree that seemed to matter in this moment when Terry is struggling to recover from her surgery and the specter of chemotherapy still looms ahead.  What use is another neck tie when our lives, for the moment, are so focused on a battle for health?  Why would I want a new power tool in a moment when we cannot imagine having the time and the peace to build something frivolous?

Our present battle for recovery and health has revealed the shallowness of our previous approach to Advent and Christmas.  What do I want for Christmas this year?

•  Love - Not the sappy sentimentalism so often associated with Christmas.  We need the kind of love that stands in the face of difficulty and gives one the strength to carry on.  The kind of love we have received from this congregation since we learned of Terry's illness.
• Joy - That lightness of spirit that cannot be dampened by the difficulties of any particular moment.  Joy is a perspective that sees beyond the trouble and finds the blessing buried in each new day.
• Peace - A calmness of heart that relies upon our God of love as a foundation.  This is the peace Paul referred to when he told the Romans that there is nothing that can seperate us from the love of God.
• Hope - The ability to embrace the future and claim a place in it.  Hope is that defiant stance that refuses to give in and casts our lot with God's work no matter what.

What do I want for Christmas?  More than I have ever wanted before, and this time I am not willing to understate my desire.

Dave Gladstone