11 Dec 2014

Advent 2014 - A Time of Hope

Advent is the season of liturgical time in which the church invites us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child into the world. This of course will mean different things to all of us. For children there is the excitement of expecting the presents that are associated with this celebration of the birth of the child Jesus. For adults all sorts of stresses and worries may be associated with this time and override the sense of hope which is for me inextricably linked with the season of Advent. .

If we think of the world and society into which The Christ child arrived we find a Jewish society where the devout lived there lives in the expectation of a messiah who would liberate them from the rule of Rome . Instead the Man Jesus taught  them that that The Love of God was more important in there lives than military power and that we are called to reflect God’s love for us in the way we interact with each other. 

When I try to anticipate what the coming of Christ means to me in this time and place I need to remember to look at my life and see where and how I have seen Christ acting in my life until now. After all  ‘ Hindsight is always twenty twenty’. So for me this Advent will spent looking back on a year which I have retired from a forty year career in the health service and in which my mother was called home to God after a long struggle with Dementia. Two life changing events in which I hope to a find a meaning for the way in which I should lead the remainder of my life, to try and find a way to contribute to to the society and church in which I live and I pray that this advent will provide the space to  look forward with renewed hope ant trust that the coming of Christ will this year lead me to define the new role which God has planned for me.


- Caroline Liddy

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