By Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Director Formation Ministries

Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

We know so much these days. My weather app tells me rain will begin near me in seven minutes. The mail delivery service sends updates alerting me to the arrival of my package. My computer chimes when a meeting will begin in 15 minutes. My friend texts me to say they are 10 minutes away to meet for coffee. In my context, life is timed and controlled down to the minute and second.

And still there are things we cannot know. Despite our best attempts to plan and control, life is unpredictable. A severe winter storm delays my delivery for (gasp) an entire week! An accident on the highway delays my friend’s arrival. The joyful or terrible catches us by surprise and disrupts what we thought might happen. Rebecca Solnit writes that “hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen.” The fear of what might happen is not a fact, despite the creativity of our anxieties. This is the hope and truth of incarnation.

I gaze into the eyes of a loved one and realize there are things happening in the mystery of their soul that I will never be able to comprehend. I am in awe. I know exactly when the sun will rise, but no one could prepare me for the vibrant hues of pink and orange spilling out across the dark blue of dawn. No one could predict the way my heart expands at the sight. My breath catches in wonder.

No one can plan the ways the Christ-child will arrive in our lives today. No one can schedule when the Spirit will move within the human soul birthing new possibilities for incarnation beyond what we imagined moments before. As we enter the season of Advent, we remember anticipation. We remember what it is to not know, to stand in readiness of the not yet. We remember that the deepest, most important things in life cannot be reduced to minutes and hours, that the surprises of the sacred unfurl in the spaces of the everyday.

Stand poised in readiness, anticipating what we cannot know or plan. The birth of the sacred is a constant potential in any moment, any place.

Prayer Phrase

“I bring you good news that will cause great joy” (Luke 2:10).

Time of Reflection

Spend a few moments dwelling in God’s presence. Pay attention to where your heart feels drawn into prayer. What words, images, or themes in this story lead you to reflect on your own faith journey? What is God’s invitation to you this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.