Photo by Caroline

By Sharon Lee Song

I have come to love the season of Advent, but perhaps not for the reasons that most might expect. Not for the twinkling of colorful lights, pine trees strewn with shiny baubles, and neatly wrapped gift boxes.  The past few years at least, the season of Advent has not been one filled with joy.  Instead, it has been sobering.

The tone that I have felt has been one that I think is closer to the reality of the time that Jesus came into the world.  It was a time of brokenness, darkness and trouble.  It was a fearful time.  Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine aptly describes the setting of the time of the first Advent:  “Mary was homeless at the time, traveling with her husband to be taxed by Rome, as a member of an occupied people, oppressed by an imperial power in an occupied deed country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby’s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child — whose kingdom he thought might compete with his.”

It was a time of tension and uncertainty.  I don’t hold tension and uncertainty well; I definitely prefer things to be clear cut, more black and white.  None of this in-between, gray-area stuff.  The nation of Israel had been waiting for 400 years without a word from God.  Imagine that environment that Jim Wallis describes along with such a long silence from God.  As I have spent time imagining it, the tension and longing in the midst of that fearful environment is almost too much to bear.  In a way, our world today is not very different from the world at the time when Jesus was born.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in our world, in our country or even in my own life in these coming days, weeks, months and years.  But what I do know more deeply now than I ever have before as a result of staying present in the sobering, fearful, dark, broken, troublesome, tense, uncertain reality of the season of Advent is this:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

–Colossians 1:15-18 ESV

I learned more of how God holds all of these things together when I came to understand a little more about the power of God’s love, breaking through time and space.  I’d heard the statement “God is outside of time and space” several times before but it’s hard to really know what that means because it’s not a concrete concept.

Recently, that concept became more concrete after watching a film called Interstellar.  The world at the time of the film is also full of fear and tension, as humanity is facing impending destruction. Without going into too much detail about the plot, there is a scene where Matthew McConaughey’s character is able to break through time and space to communicate with his daughter in the past in a pivotal way to not only save humanity, but also for his daughter to know of his love for her all along.

I was utterly stunned at this visual image of love breaking through time and space.  It suddenly struck me that this is what God did through Jesus being born into the world and that this is what God does all of the time in our lives because of Jesus’ life, love and sacrifice.  He breaks through with his love all of the time, every day.  His love is the most powerful force in the world and it breaks through time and space.  I realized in that moment that I do not have to be afraid of anything because of this.

Jesus came and will come again.  This is why we celebrate Advent.  His love broke through time and space through the arrival of Jesus, in the midst of a time of great fear, trouble and tension.  His love continues to break through each and every day in our lives in our not-so-different world today.  He holds all of it together.

I can sing all of those Christmas carols and worship with my whole being understanding a little more of the visceral truth of the longing in words like “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” and “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” I can celebrate this in this fuller picture of the season of Advent.

Sharon Lee Song lives and works in South Los Angeles with an urban ministry community.  Inspired by her own transformation through self-care and soul care, Sharon became a certified personal trainer, Holy Yoga instructor, and spiritual director.  She’s committed to using what she’s learned from her training to support others in living healthy, sustainable, urban spiritual lives.