Advent and Hope

During this second week of Advent, I am reminded that the start of Advent is the start of another new liturgical year in the church: a new beginning. I love this season, because it is all about preparing and waiting for what is to come. That is sometimes hard when it seems Advent is hardly noticed so close the Christmas. And by this late in 2020, we are all tired of waiting.

Of course, we know the season of Christmas is thrust upon us earlier and earlier every year. It begins with hints and whispers in July, until it is a blaring cacophony after Halloween. Most years people grumble and complain and vow to not put up lights or trees until after Thanksgiving; but 2020 is not most years.

Even in the most secular of settings, Christmas has been welcomed with open arms. The colors and the lights truly are uplifting and one cannot help but be filled with hope. Hope of a new year, a new decade, a new beginning.

We all have dealt with the darkness of 2020, and we look with great anticipation at the next year more than ever. I will be curious to see how history will portray the year 2020. It taints everything right now. We cannot escape it. We cannot turn it off, but in another few years, will it begin to fade and become the story that the young roll their eyes at and become bored with at the dinner table?

I am filled with hope!