The universe, you know, is filled with outrageous beauty.
There are amazing and active space nebula, dancing deep-sea anemone, graceful dolphins, sparkling waters, soaring birds, an entire earth bursting with color and fragrance and food for all its creatures. There is the deep and mysterious rhythm of the surf, the joyous music of birds, the flooding sweet of the mango or melon (”God makes the best dessert,” I tell my children, and they agree!). There are glorious mountains reaching into the heavens, inspiring us to look upward; the Badlands, the giant Sequoia, the Amazon rainforest; the eyes of a child. There’s Alaska.
But really, this doesn’t amaze God. He created it to be beautiful, He intended it to point to its Creator, and He declared it “good,” but it is only a faint reflection of Himself. The grandeur we see can’t compare with the glories of Heaven - the Alpine mountains are only, after all, a large pile of rock; the Mojave a sandbox; that breathtaking sunset that burned itself into your brain is only a spark of the one Light. The One, Eternal, Infinite, Light that is Love, sufficient unto Itself, but not content to remain that way, because Love must GIVE.
I did not choose to exist. Neither did you. And if we COULD have chosen the circumstances of our existence, we would perhaps have chosen different circumstances than those into which we were born. If we could choose, we’d probably choose something better; we’d choose to move UP.
But there is one Person who DID choose to exist, and He chose to step DOWN to a lower place. A very, very low place. The lowest place. God the Son chose to become man.
Having given only a moment’s thought to the infinite distance between the eternal dwelling places and our little existence here, we can see that this is something like Louis XIV choosing to become a worm. “A worm and no man…”
Christ set aside His garments of light and left His place of dominion and power and majesty to become a tiny group of multiplying cells under the heart of the purest creature - in a country in the grip of religious confusion and political upheaval, to the poorest of the poor, in a time that was blood-stained and barbaric. He was born in the cold, in the only place that would welcome Him - a stable of animals, unseen and unrecognized by those He came to save. From the moment of His birth, there were those who sought His death, and He began dodging them immediately. He lived most of His life laboring in obscurity, bringing glory to His Father by performing perfectly every task set before Him.
He chose to become man, knowing that He came to give His life for the salvation of all, and that this Sacrifice would be brutal and public and would cause confusion among those who had begun to listen to what He had to say. He became “a worm and no man” in order to lift us up with Him.
Advent allows us to enter into the waiting of this small nation, tossed and buffeted by the turbulent waves of history but unshakeable in hope. Israel never lost sight of the truth that it was destined to bring forth the Messiah, that salvation would come. Though “salvation” was - and IS - often misunderstood or distorted, still the hope of salvation defined them.
Advent also allows us to enter more deeply into the Mystery of Salvation, by re-examining our own lives and re-orienting our hearts to the Savior who is to come again. A time to “make ready.” A beautiful time of anticipation, lit with hope and warmed with the promise of peace.
The promise of peace.
