The invitation that lie ahead of us in the stable, in the manger, in the arms of Mary is promised in the Magnificat – it’s an invitation to create a new hope, to see a new future, to engage in a new promise, to receive a new inspiration … for this is not just the future work of God, it is the work God is already doing, and in full assurance, it is the work God has already done.

The Advent paradox says we don’t have to be ok, to be ok. … We don’t have to be ok, to be ok. … Can you say that with me? We don’t have to be ok, to be ok.

In times of desperation and difficulty, we often feel as if God is missing. Like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we bemoan our current situation. And yet, the promise of Advent is not that we need to rush ahead, to busy ourselves to forget the past and move on to the future, but to remember … to remember God has not left us.

We turn to God in lament and anger, because we believe God has the capacity to ensure such ill does not afflict us. Knowing of God’s power over the temporary and the enteral, our only explanation for such harm in the here and now is that God must have chosen it. It’s our way of coping, as God’s limited creation, to explain unexplainable or undesirable events.