Advent 20

Today is the shortest day of the year, here in my beautiful northern hemisphere. I took this photo yesterday as we walked through local ancient woodland; the low December sun in our eyes for most of the circuit, making everything a silhouette; the shafts of light and bars of dark making it hard to see among the trees…reminding me that in this world, where God’s light throws our darkness into stark relief, we have to walk by faith and not by sight.


Under the nose of the Roman
Empire,
Under the nose of the court in
Jerusalem,
Under the nose of the Prince of
this World,
God snuck in
Under cover of darkness.

[And did the Christ-child know,
or care, of
Emperor, and King, and Prince?
Not in the slightest!]

Under the nose of military
supremacy,
Under the nose of the celebrity
circus,
Under the nose of that in which our world
puts hope and trust,
God sneaks in
Under cover of darkness.

[Still unimpressed by
Politics and Pleasure;
giving himself instead to
overlooked and unimportant people.]


Advent