The Mattering Part

Advent:
THE MATTERING PART…
is never the chopped-off stump.
It isn’t what dream has been cut down, what hope has been cut off, what part of the heart has been cut out.
The tender mattering part is — you have a Tree.

Out of the last and forgotten son of Jesse comes forth one tender branch that will grow into a crown of thorns…a rugged cross…your ladder back to God.  Jesus will go to impossible lengths to rescue you.

Out of the stump of that fallen tree, watered with the living waters that flow from the depth of His grace, a twig sprouts. That twig will be the scepter that defeats your sin…and lets you grow again.

The theology of the Tree, of the Cross, always seeks the presence of God in the belittled gifts of the world.

The small Babe of Bethlehem, the dismissed Son of God, the stripped and beaten Messiah hanging exposed on the Tree— He begs us to spend the attention of Advent on the little, the least, the lonely, the lost.

Advent, it is made of the moments.
This slow unfurling of grace.

—Ann Voskamp
The Greatest Gift
Unwrapping The Full Love Story Of Christmas

Reflection:

In what ways do you feel like a lifeless stump, longing for a tender shoot of hope?

What are you waiting for, yearning for this season?

Where can you see new life coming in what you may have considered dead?

Always With Love – Laura💕