December 1, 2024
Luke 1:26-38
Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. As 2024 ends a new church year begins. Christ’s birth ushers us into new ways of living and loving and yet, the world spins on. In many ways, pregnant Mary was surrounded by endings—large and small, personal and political. But Mary proclaimed hope in a God who was and is making all things new. Christ’s birth offered a new beginning for people like shepherds and Magi while King Herod tried to bring Christ’s story to an end. When we navigate seasons filled with endings and beginnings, we need reminders. We need words that can feel like steady ground, like a path for our feet to find as we step forward into the unknown.
The Advent journey unfolds like a well-worn quilt, each patchwork piece lovingly threaded across time and space. In each thread, we find blessed assurance that with every sacred stitch, God has been moving toward us all along. This season reminds us that, what some may see as discarded scraps, the Maker of heaven and earth calls beautiful and blessed.
Mary, an ordinary girl from the obscure corners of Nazareth, was not cloaked in power or prestige but was blanketed in belovedness. And that was enough. Advent invites us to reflect on how we, like Mary, are invited into God’s redemptive narrative no matter how ordinary or small we might feel. Because each of us has the potential to carry God’s love into a weary world. In Luke, the story of Mary and the angel illustrates how God selects someone the world might overlook to be part of something beautiful. Gabriel's message, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” isn’t merely a formality but a declaration of Mary's essential place in this divine quilt.
Mary’s encounter with Gabriel, a pivotal moment in the Advent story, marks the unveiling of a promise and a prophecy of a miraculous birth that subverted every expectation of what a coming King’s arrival might look like. Mary’s response—“How will this be?”—is profoundly human. In this moment of divine mystery, Gabriel offers a blessed reassurance: “Do not be afraid.” When we wonder if our quiet worries or loud wonderings matter in the vast expanse of the cosmos, these words remind us that God knows our wandering hearts, acknowledges our fears, and moves toward us.
Isaiah 43 echoes this comfort, promising we will not be alone when we pass through deep waters or face the fires of trials: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” In a world often drenched in pain, suffering, and injustice, it is a gift to remember that we are formed and made by a God who loves us and doesn’t leave us.
We often feel compelled to earn our worth and belovedness, but the One who grants each breath affirms our inherent worth. In light of God’s infinite love, we are beloved, the very fibers of our being woven with care. We can’t work our way to receiving God's compassion. It’s already there—as present as the twinkling stars in the sky, as near as the clouds of breath on a cold night. You are a blessing because the One from whom all blessings flow sees you, knows you, and calls you by name.
When you are facing impossibilities, as Mary did, it’s not your productivity or power that will push you through, but the grace of God. This divine assurance doesn’t clarify every outcome or guarantee a life of ease—Mary’s path, like many before and after, was fraught with challenges. Yet this promise of love that makes a way when there is no way offers us hope that we do not face our challenges alone. As we journey into the Advent season, may you rest under the warmth of these truths. By embracing our inherent blessedness as a starting point, we open our hearts to recognize and affirm the blessedness in others, which transforms our interactions and communities. God's perfect love invites us to live out our belovedness by transforming our world with love and entering into the good work God’s hand began weaving many years ago. This Advent, consider your sacred place within the divine quilt.
You are a blessing—known, chosen, and called for a purpose. May you boldly live into this truth, recognizing and cherishing your inherent worth so that you may honor God’s image in others. Trust in your belovedness as you enter the redemptive work God has invited you into this Advent season
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