Third Sunday of Advent: More to Say
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
—Luke 1:39-45
Forget Santas in swimsuits—we celebrated Advent in July this year.
To begin our writing for this devotional, I led a weekly meeting with CCO staff that was part reflection, part book group, and part writing workshop. We read sermons from Fleming Rutledge’s book, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, and remembered (with sensory and emotional details, writers!) how God meets us in the now-but-not-yet moments of our lives.
One late summer afternoon, I was in the office preparing the slides for our next Zoom meeting. I longed to bike home, but instead, I tried to check one more box on my to-do list. To finish the slides, all I needed was an image of the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary, written about in Luke 1.
And as I searched “elizabeth and mary images and paintings,” I received a lovely surprise.
Joy.
The representations of this long-ago meeting of pregnant cousins are full of joy.
The styles of the paintings and drawings varied, but a sense of joy permeated them. And seeing all the pictures together on my computer screen—especially the ones where the two women laugh together—was like hearing Elizabeth proclaim “Blessed are you!”
This story from long ago came alive to me in a new way. It was an unexpected gift.
It was a blessing.
This Advent, we have acknowledged the tension, the bittersweet, the now-but-not-yet of our present moment. But even when evil and brokenness still seem to reign over God's good world, there is always more to say.
As we turn the corner into the last full week of Advent, we will hear about moments when the light breaks through the darkness. We will see glimpses of heaven touching earth.
Listen carefully—to these stories and to your own life—and you may hear God say, "I am here. And I am still at work. Look, there is joy!"
—Jennifer Pelling is a writer and editor with the CCO’s Marketing & Communications Team. She is managing editor of the CCO Advent Devotional.
In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
—Luke 1:39-45
Forget Santas in swimsuits—we celebrated Advent in July this year.
To begin our writing for this devotional, I led a weekly meeting with CCO staff that was part reflection, part book group, and part writing workshop. We read sermons from Fleming Rutledge’s book, Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, and remembered (with sensory and emotional details, writers!) how God meets us in the now-but-not-yet moments of our lives.
One late summer afternoon, I was in the office preparing the slides for our next Zoom meeting. I longed to bike home, but instead, I tried to check one more box on my to-do list. To finish the slides, all I needed was an image of the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary, written about in Luke 1.
And as I searched “elizabeth and mary images and paintings,” I received a lovely surprise.
Joy.
The representations of this long-ago meeting of pregnant cousins are full of joy.
The styles of the paintings and drawings varied, but a sense of joy permeated them. And seeing all the pictures together on my computer screen—especially the ones where the two women laugh together—was like hearing Elizabeth proclaim “Blessed are you!”
This story from long ago came alive to me in a new way. It was an unexpected gift.
It was a blessing.
This Advent, we have acknowledged the tension, the bittersweet, the now-but-not-yet of our present moment. But even when evil and brokenness still seem to reign over God's good world, there is always more to say.
As we turn the corner into the last full week of Advent, we will hear about moments when the light breaks through the darkness. We will see glimpses of heaven touching earth.
Listen carefully—to these stories and to your own life—and you may hear God say, "I am here. And I am still at work. Look, there is joy!"
—Jennifer Pelling is a writer and editor with the CCO’s Marketing & Communications Team. She is managing editor of the CCO Advent Devotional.