Merry Christmas Eve December 25, 2011

Looking back, last December was full of lots of posts.  I had lots of time on my hands (because I was still looking for work).  This year, we are busy busy busy, although not really with the typical things that people are occupied with in December, and rather work (that I get paid for), not to mention the work of helping C send applications out (which is now pretty much over with); work; getting ready for interviews (for C), which has involved not just normal preparations, mock interviews, etc. but also buying another suit (because probably if he wore the same suit 4 days in a row, it would get stinky), plus accessories (belts, shoes, briefcase, etc.), lots of phone calls (and buying new phones), and so on.  We didn’t even put up a Christmas tree, and we’ve only heard the Statler Brothers’ Christmas Album a handful of times.  

But in the middle of December, for a weekend, we got a little infusion of festive holiday celebrations.  We went to a little holiday food-tasting (yummy), and to the faculty holiday party where C works (fancy shmancy).  And to a Service of Lessons & Carols on Sunday evening.  The highlight of our weekend, however, was the service we went to at Harvard Memorial Church on Sunday morning.  We had never been there before on a Sunday, and weren’t really sure what to expect. But it was a lovely, fairly simple advent service, rooted in the expectation of the coming of our savior that we celebrate in Advent.  The guest preacher that week was Miroslav Volf, a Yale theologian, who spoke about the hope that we can take in Christ’s proclamation in Revelation 21: “Behold, I make all things new!”  Volf’s meditation was a good reminder – particularly in the midst of this busy season  – of the hope that we have in Christ, who will make all thing (who is making all things) new.  A promise of restoration in this broken world – the reason we celebrate this season.

So the happiest of Christmas wishes from Seattle, where we’re about to sit down to a goose dinner, and then later tonight go to the midnight candlelight service. 

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