The hymns we sing at Advent always seems to have a depth to them. Like ‘The Lord will come and not be slow’, by John Milton which is based on Psalm 85. Spring flowers may be a distant memory, but
‘Truth from the earth, like to a flower
Shall bud and blossom then…’
So how do we see God and his kingdom on earth? Think of it like this. Consider every kind word, and every good deed that anyone has ever done spoken to you or done for you. Every fair decision, and every true word spoken in love. Think of all the things that have cheered you. Or maybe you could list these over the coming week. Lockdown is a time when many are especially aware of kindness to others. All these, gathered together into one and magnified millions of times more give you some faint notion of God. The coming of our Lord Jesus is a way of God letting us know that however great and mysterious He is, we can understand Him, and He understands what is truly important to us.
Or you could think of it the other way round. Every kind word and loving action that is spoken to, or done for, you is an expression, even if the tiniest fragment, of God’s love for you. The more we can learn to recognise goodness in people, and to love what is good, the more we can know God.
At this approach to Christmas, every time you see a Christmas light, pause to think of a moment in your life, or even your week or day, when God has shown you his goodness through an act of goodness. If we could see as God sees, all the houses around us would be lit up like houses at Christmas with each act of love and generosity. True ‘daysprings’ cheering us by tiny reflections of God’s love and generosity.
The Devon author Charles Kingsley wrote that “the world has looked different to me since I found out that there must be One in whom all goodness is gathered together… that all the goodness in the world must, in some way or another, come from Him”. This makes our ordinary, everyday moments alive with the deepest meaning imaginable.
Milton’s Advent hymn continues:
‘And justice, from her heavenly bower,
Look down on mortal men.'
And Advent means that God’s love, truth and justice do not just stay ‘up there’, looking down, but if we let Him, and have eyes to see it, find expression in all we ‘mortal men’ and women do and say.
Dear God of truth, justice and love,
You are the source of all goodness;
May we learn to see your goodness in all around us, shining brightly in even the darkest times,
Especially at this time when we remember the dawning of your light in the world.
Amen.
