Happy New Year!

Advent is here. God’s incarnation is near. The new church year has begun. Happy New Year! That’s all we need right now. Happiness and Newness, a new beginning for our weary bodies and souls.

Advent is here. In a way that always means that the end of the year is close. 2020 is about to end and I doubt that anybody is sad about that. It’s been quite a year. Advent is here. God is close!

In our house, Advent is always a special time of cuddling up on the couch at night, reading Advent stories, opening Advent calendars, drinking hot chocolate, baking cookies, caroling. So, when I told the kids on Sunday that it was first of Advent, they were overly excited. “But where is our Advent wreath?”, they asked. “Well, we haven’t made one yet, we just came back from camping (yes, it was horribly cold, thanks for asking!).” My kids’ eyes teared up. I quickly lit another candle and began singing our traditional Advent hymn. It helped a bit.

Then, I texted Kris. “May Toni and I please come to your Advent wreath workshop today?” She replied yes and our day was saved. A couple of hours later we met in Kris’ backyard and started working. Well, Toni worked, I talked. It took her about an hour to fix us a beautiful wreath. An hour, that filled my heart with Advent feelings and seasonal emotions. God will come. Soon. No matter whether we are ready or not. God is used to his people not being ready. And comes anyway.

At night, we lit our first candle, sang our hymn and felt it: Advent is here. God is near. Happy New Year!

Love, Pastor Tia!