December 17 - Bountiful

December 17 - #AdventWord #Bountiful
As we journey through Advent, we are expectant and eager to celebrate the coming of the Christ, as child and as Prince of Peace. As we continue to make our way through the pandemic, we have learned to make do with shortages, delays, disappointments, and isolation.

All the while we know that our loving God is not one of scarcity, but of abundance. We hear the young woman Mary sing, in response to God’s invitation:

          He has filled the hungry with good things, *
          and the rich he has sent away empty.

We are among the rich, by the world’s standards. And we are also followers of Jesus. We abide in him, and he in us. As we bow before his cradle soon, hungry to be nourished to minister in his world to his people in need, we find a home. There is room for us in his life. He prepares spiritual mansions for us as his sisters and brothers. May our Lord find in us a mansion prepared for himself – in our hearts, churches, worship – in our giving and in our ministries.

Soon enough we make room in our hearts, to hear again the proclamation of John’s Gospel: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” We, too, can be filled with this grace and truth from God, as he pours upon us the new light of the incarnate Word. And we will have more than enough to share.

As we sing Advent songs of expectation, and as we join with angels in carols welcoming the Savior, may we sing in our spirits these words, as well:
          O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us!
          With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
          And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
          And guard us through all ills in this world, and the next!

— The Rev. Donald Fishburne worships at Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church on Pawleys Island; he is a coach and consultant to clergy and churches.