The Pre-Dessert

Throughout this past week, I’ve been writing about the unexpected, the elements of Advent that catch by surprise. As we step into the last days of this glorious season, we come to a moment that contemporary chefs will call “the pre-dessert.” It is a “sorbet moment,” a gentle sweetness that cleanses the palette, shifting one from the savory main course to the tasty dessert. It is, as an aspect of Advent... wonder.

          Think of the wonder in our Advent story.

          At the core, there is the caring of God, the heartfelt ache of our Creator, who desires for us to be close with him, to be in touch with his guidance and his love. So, he does the most dramatic thing of all… he joins us in this reality. Doesn’t it touch wonder?

          There is the first news of this given to people centuries before.

There is one who is coming.

We sometimes don’t recognize fully what we're being told when we hear Isaiah’s word… he will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace…” we can glide past the familiar without hearing that a Jewish man (Isaiah) was saying another Jewish man (Messiah) would be called “God” and “Eternal.” Doesn’t it touch wonder?

          And then further first news, before it was given to Joseph, before Mary, even before Zechariah, the priest, was told that his son would be the herald of Messiah, a simple man was given a promise. Simeon, a devout, sensitive man, who was in touch with the Spirit of God, was told that he would see Messiah before he died. So he was prepared and, moved by the Spirit, went to the temple, anticipating, waiting and watching, looking forward. And so, he was ready when all our Christmas story had taken place and Mary and Joseph came to dedicate the child, he was ready for that moment because he had been told before them. Doesn’t it touch wonder?

          And then there was a star that appeared before the child came, so that astronomers or astrologers, men who studied the sky would notice a difference, a sign. They would prepare, pack, arrange travel plans and go to find this announced one.

Then, after all that, there was an elderly priest, and a woman who shouldn’t be able to have children getting pregnant, and a girl confronted with an astonishing engagement with the work of God, and a man challenged to look beyond his own reasoning, and then there were simple shepherds, and an angel, and then angels shouting praise and then townspeople hearing strange news. Doesn’t it touch wonder.

          This little moment, this moment in your hands and heart right now, let it touch wonder.