Advent Calendar – Day 4

Welcome to Advent…Day 4

These short meditations can be done alone, with a partner, or with the whole family.
My suggestion is evening time; light a candle, play the music suggested below,
Have a little treat, it’s an Advent Calendar, after all!
(Maybe hide some chocolate around the house each day, or hang it from the ceiling?)
And read the material aloud together…
There’s quite a lot here. You dont need to do it all; either follow the story and the blessings, or simply enjoy the poems.
Make it a special moment, ten minutes, of togetherness in this busy season.

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Shorter Version (for families)
The Angel said to Zechariah, “John will be alive with the Holy Spirit. He will live a hard life, but will get the people ready for God.”

Zechariah didnt believe what he was hearing, “my wife and I are very old, how can we have a child?”

The angel said, “I am Gabriel, the angel of God. To show you this will happen you will not be able to speak until the baby is born. This will happen in God’s time”

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Longer Version – Zechariah at the Temple

The Angel continued…

“John will drink neither wine nor beer. He’ll be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment he leaves his mother’s womb. He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God. He will herald God’s arrival in the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics—he’ll get the people ready for God.”

Zechariah said to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is an old woman.”

But the angel said, “I am Gabriel, the messenger of God, sent especially to bring you this glad news. But because you won’t believe me, you’ll be unable to say a word until the day of your son’s birth. Every word I’ve spoken to you will come true on time—God’s time.”

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Poem – Advent by Rowan Williams

… He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.

You can find the full poem here

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Blessing for you and your family
Sometimes it is hard to have hope. But hope is less in believing in certain things, it’s more like waking up each day, carrying on when things are hard, and being surprised by the good which emerges in the details.

Think about the small moments of ‘hope’ which come to you in the everyday.

May the HOPE of God arrive in the most unexpected places, and be always with you. Amen

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