Advent 4 -- The Lighting of the Shepherd's Candle
Sunday morning, December 17th, was our third morning without power at our home and at the church. With temperatures around 25 degrees, our wood stove seemed to do little to take the cold bite out of the air.
Our weekend services were done with the help of some generator - powered flood lights. The choir and the orchestra was replaced with a simple guitar and some percussion. The children all met together in one room. Attendance was down, but surprisingly, people's spirits were up.
It's a bit humbling when you see your technologically dependant lives quickly reduced to discomfort and distress following a storm or similar event. Maybe it is a tiny glimpse of the difficult life the shepherds would have know. They were outcasts. They spent their lives under the stars. They didn't know the luxuries of wealth. But they were the ones chosen by God to first hear of the Savior's birth. God moved them from the marginalized into the center frame of the greatest story the world has ever known. There they encountered their destiny, joy, hope and mind-boggling grace. These same things are available to us today-- maybe a power outage can help us look the right direction.
To see this week's advent guide visit www.eastsidechurch.org.
By the way, our power came back on last night and there was great rejoicing in our house!
1 comment:
Glad you got your power back. We still have refugees of the storm staying at our house.
Also, I had a great time over the weekend at Eastside. It's great to know that we're not always in control, and it's ok. The services w/o power really turned my attention to what the early church was and how it survived.
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