A telling tree
When you asked me my favorite Advent Scripture the one that came was Isaiah 11, “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse…” This speaks to me of new life out of the old. Advent comes in the midst of the dark and cold at the end of the year, but it holds the promise of new life. This reading also focuses on a tree, and in my spiritual life the tree has been a most important image. It exemplifies the cycle of life– the new growth of spring, the profusion of summer, the flaming, dying beauty of autumn and the stark bare winter. At one prolonged, difficult time in my life I was driving along a road in winter and noticed a barren looking tree with no sign of life. All of a sudden I realized that there was life deep inside the tree– and inside of me. The tree would sprout forth in green again and just as surely there was new life in me waiting to flower. I discovered that resilience is a name of God.
December can be such a busy, frantic time, but the Advent Scriptures help me tune into a longing for peace. This year I may be physically achy, lower in energy, but I’m grateful to be much calmer in my tasks, taking time and rejoicing in Advent’s promise of new life.
