During the Advent Season, we sing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” and “O come, O Come, Emmanuel.” In the Advent Season there is an atmosphere of anticipation, a sense of longing. Perhaps we are feeling what St. Augustine expressed when he said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” After all, we need a point of reference, a center, the thing that brings us home so that we may know whose we really are.
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd tells of an interesting incident which happened during one of his trips to the South Pole. While on an exploration, a sudden snowstorm came up and he lost his sense of direction. He always carried with him a long pole in order to feel if there were holes in the ice. On this occasion he stuck it in the snow and tied a brightly colored piece of cloth to it. He said, “That was my center. If I failed to find my hut, I could return to the center and try again. Three times I tried and failed, but each time I returned to my center, without which I would have been lost and would have died. In the fourth attempt, I stumbled upon my hut.”
In our faith journeys, we must have a center, a point to which we return for guidance or direction, a point of reference which directs us home, and that is exactly who God gave us in the Bethlehem Child.
Prayer:
“O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray.
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.” Amen