My kids have been confused lately. In addition to the US Postal Service, a UHaul truck has been making regular rounds throughout our neighborhood and delivering packages to our front porch. They are puzzled not only by the frequency of these drops, slowly figuring out those packages are not coming from the North Pole, but also because these trucks are typically marked with a different corporate logo or the red, white, and blue. Apparently, contracts have been made with these rental companies to meet higher than normal seasonal delivery demands. There are just too many requests.
Friends, it is an understatement to say petitions for personal and societal deliverance has peaked and the volume is higher than usual. We may doubt our capacity to do all that is expected; grief and exhaustion may consume us daily as we wonder if we can shoulder one. more. thing. The good news of the gospel, particularly found each Advent, is we do not journey alone through the wandering and waiting for relief. God is with us and among us, often in one another as the varied vehicles of grace, gratitude, and incarnations of divine deliverance. In the midst of all the despair these last nine months, there have been even more witnesses to the resilience of humanity who have responded to the constraints of the day with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. God with us has happened and is happening in food distribution centers, live-streaming worship, officiating outdoor baptisms and weddings, doctors providing care on the frontlines of the pandemic, teachers doing their best to educate our children, therapists nurturing increased layers of empathy, local restaurants partnering to employ servers, virtual charity runs benefiting not-for-profits, scientists working around the clock for a vaccine, athletes raising their voices in just solidarity, and organizers tirelessly pursuing dreams of equity through their advocacy. The list goes on, as God’s deliverance makes its rounds in the uncommon and unexpected, the simple and the profound, and sometimes shows up on your front step just in time. Where have you found it these days? Keep your eyes wide open. Also- pray for your mail service personnel :)
Check out the calendar of words for sacred imaging through AdventWord.