In
our home, we build up our Christmas decorations slowly through Advent, bringing
out a box on each of the four weekends. It begins with just a few changes: a
figurine of a pregnant woman, symbolizing Mary, placed on one end of the
mantlepiece, with an attending angel; our Advent calendar opposite. I bring my
wife a mug of coffee in bed every morning before we get up (itself another
ritual) and on the first day of Advent we swap out our usual mugs for ones we
only use in Advent: simple markers. The tree does not go up until week three.
In
this way, we build up a sense of expectancy, ready to celebrate Christmas when
it arrives – a twelve-day feast; we are not sick of it all by the afternoon of
Boxing Day, desperate to pack everything away for another year.
But
this might also help us to wait expectantly for Christ’s return: recognising –
learning to recognise – that Jesus breaks into our lives in many often small
and accumulative ways; that the victory of justice and mercy over exploitation
and oppression is not, usually, dramatic – and yet, little by little –
gradually – comes around again and again.
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