Advent

In this poem written some fifteen centuries ago, Augustine tried to capture the mystery of the Incarnation:

Maker of the sun,
He is made under the sun.
In the Father he remains,
From his mother he goes forth.
Creator of heaven and earth,
He was born on earth under heaven.
Unspeakably wise,
He is wisely speechless.
Filling the world,
He lies in a manger.
Ruler of the stars,
He nurses at his mother’s bosom.
He is both great in the nature of God,
And small in the form of a servant.

Colossians 1:16 expressed it this way, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

As Christians, we are privileged to know the Creator of the universe. So when we study a tiny wildflower or marvel at the vastness of the Milky Way, we are reminded of the One who made all of it. In a deeply personal expression of praise, the psalmist wrote, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth” Psalm 8:1Do you know that all creation points to a Creator? Albert Einstein did not make a profession of Christian faith. But like many others he looked at the wonders of the universe and knew there had to be a God. An interviewer once asked him if he was an atheist. He said No, and then said this:

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

Albert Einstein understood the eternal power and divine nature of God from what God has made. How come? Because the creation, especially the heavens, reveal knowledge of God to humankind.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,

of grey and white and cold,

teach us the lessons of beginnings;

that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,

a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—

something right and just and different,

a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—

in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant us the sense of your timing. Amen