Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

This year's Advent wreath has been a wonderful surprise. For the past several years our Altar Guild and flower decorators have had the practice of building our sanctuary Advent wreath over time - beginning each first Sunday of Advent with a wreath of sticks and then each week adding greenery and color until we have a full, gorgeous wreath on Christmas Eve. This year as we talked about this practice we realized that while it was extremely satisfying for the folks doing the building each week, lots of other voices around the table had never noticed the wreath's transformation, despite our practice of lighting it during the liturgy each week. 

So we decided to expand the circle of creativity, and invite all of us to participate in that satisfying act of making the wreath. 

I wondered what you would all think of this. Would people participate? Would it work, or would our experts have to swoop in after each service and rearrange the piles of rocks and sticks, or green branches, or whatever we used each week to make it look serviceable? We didn't know, but we wanted to try.

Last Sunday I watched a hundred people of all ages build a wreath together and I marveled at how carefully each person set their branch into the wreath. Our community, represented by those gathered that day, made something together as we wait. Which is one way to look at the work of the Christian life, I think. We come together always waiting - waiting for God to show up, waiting for whatever is next, waiting for a world where none of us are hungry, cold, afraid, or alone. But we don't wait alone, and we don't wait in darkness. We come together and we create while we wait. We create beauty and community. We create light and warmth. We make friends, and love, and hope in ways both real and symbolic. And in the midst of this waiting, God does show up, and we begin to see in ways big and small just how wonderful and worth it all this waiting can be.

I love creating and waiting with you. I hope your Advent is blessed, and as we turn the corner toward the celebration to come, I'm not in a hurry. There is blessing in the waiting, too.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa