advent – Page 19 – 300 words a day

The story might have been different

I was thinking about Mary on Sunday morning. That’s good, I suppose, given that I was in church and it’s a couple weeks before Christmas and the sermon was about Mary (the mother of Jesus). I mean, if I had been thinking about Moses, that wouldn’t have made sense. If I had been thinking about […]

by Jon Swanson

A cry for the helper.

I wish I knew whether it was December when David wrote Psalm 70. Not that the time of year matters, of course, but somehow it fits December. Short days, long nights. A sense of expected delight but a feeling of impending doom. And lots of allegations of inconsistency, much of it coming from inside our […]

by Jon Swanson

Shepherds (an Advent post)

On the first day of a new job, one of the first tasks is to introduce the newbie to everyone. It’s part of the orientation, part of saying to the newbie, “Here are our heroes, here are your colleagues, here is what the job looks like, here is the heritage you are joining.” On the […]

by Jon Swanson

Once more, with feeling.

In 1966, I was in third grade. I had a fourth-grade part in the Christmas program at church. I’m not sure what third-graders did, but I got to hold a wreath and repeat a few lines. The lines were typed on a card affixed to the back of the wreath, but I knew them. I […]

by Jon Swanson

Are you the one we are expecting?

This is Advent, a time of expectation. It is easy to confuse the expectation which characterizes Advent with the expectation which characterizes Christmas. For Christmas, we expect gifts. Many of us look forward to something good to add to the pretty good we already have. There is an anticipation that we will get something which […]