Day 5 -- Heal on This Fifth Day of Advent

Healing happens best when one heals with a friend (ice cream is a plus).

It has been quite a year! Last year at this time, my husband was healing from knee replacement surgery and the effect of the pain medications. Less than a year later, he wound up in the hospital with a bacterial skin infection which triggered an arthritic flare up in his natural knee. We're thankful his artificial knee was not touched! From there, both of us have had visits with the doctors. The privilege of growing older. Yet, I know many friends and family members of all ages and for many reasons are in need of healing right now. For some, eating good food, moving around, and getting some sleep goes a long ways.

For others, healing is more complicated. Still, I like the subtitle on this book cover: "How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes."

Some days all one can do is to "take the next step one knows to take" -- a Dallas Willard saying that has helped me time after time.

Healing, in the midst of a medical condition or healing in the midst of relational issues, is a journey -- a journey that one often awakens to. For me and mine, we gather our resources, we simplify our lives, and we wait, just as Advent is a time of waiting, for the One who comes with healing in his wings. 

Day 3 -- Gather on This Third Day of Advent

When I first read the word for day three of #adventword2017 -- #gather , I had the pictures below in mind: gathering up the autumn leaves.

I like gathering leaves except when the wind keeps blowing them away. Certainly that can be a good metaphor for gathering. However, as I was looking at the pictures, I realized the sameness of the leaves. Yes, they're a little different but mostly they're the same. When I think of an excellent image of "gather" for Advent, I think of beauty in the diversity: Individuals gathered in the community -- unity come together. Something more like the pictures below:

A few toes were stepped on the weekend this picture was taken but love was in the house.

While searching for the shoes and feet picture, I ran across this one. We had gathered in England to study the with God life together. The geographical , gender, and age diversity around this table is immense (even if the flesh tones are not -- we did have diversity there as well; it's just not showing in this picture). Still, the image below is the one I chose:

This is what I gathered for my fruit salad: each part unique, yet together scrumptious. Each element had its own set of flaws; nonetheless, each was delightful individually and gathered into one bowl. (I ate the finished product without taking a picture!)  This image has its drawbacks as well. It's a still image. The other images with their sense of movement are more adequate in that respect to convey what it is like to gather. I'll close with a different gathering: a gathering in the future that can also be a gathering in the here and now. Advent can be the start of a gathering such as this.

"Imagine the day after your death...These people are breathtaking...you stop, startled, as you realize that there are others who look at you and see exactly the same: someone beautiful...someone magnificent in whom God dwells and delights...others are not simply wandering around...musicians in their orchestras...sculptors, painters, glassblowers, weavers, embroiderers, and photographers. Dancers leap around one another and you. Poets recite...writers...architects...constructions workers. Construction workers? Yes, there is artists of every kind going on here: creativity, endeavor, the shaping of the world in every way...As you watch all this activity, you gradually begin to realize that among all this runs a single golden thread: love...God in the midst of all this..." Now, to paraphrase the last page of this section of the book, God Soaked Life, imagine that we can start practicing to live this way now. Intrigued? Here are the four pages of the prologue of that book.