What a wonderful beginning to Advent! We were blessed on Sunday with the Oconee Suzuki Strings, who added so much to our time of worship. The theme of HOPE carried throughout the morning, as we gave thanks for the promised HOPE and lit the first Advent candle – the candle of HOPE.
This Sunday, we will be led by our choir, as they share their Christmas offering of music with us, joined by musicians from Putnam County High School. We will light the candle of PEACE and be guided during the sermon by the children’s book, Songs of the Season: A Christmas Story.
As we walk together through these first days of Advent, I encourage you to read and reflect on these words from author Jan Richardson. Where will you encounter Christ this week? Blessings on the journey.
It may be tempting to think that we should prepare ourselves more strenuously to encounter and welcome Christ than to meet anyone else. This season, however, beckons us to remember that the incarnation takes place anew each day, and that Christ comes in the form of those whom we meet on our path. How are we preparing ourselves to encounter Christ in them? How do we ready ourselves for this sacrament, this mystery, this miracle? Amid the graced and necessary complexities involved in being who God has created and called us to be, how do we make a space for the One who desires to approach and meet us in this and every season?
-Pastor Jane