“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12
Jesus said a lot about love: about the Father’s and his love for us and about our loving others. So if Christianity is about our learning to love as Jesus loved, then Advent must be about love. Real love – not just the sentimentality that we feel when we see Nativity scenes or Santa holding baby Jesus. Real love – the kind that is willing to say nothing in the face of undeserved criticism; the kind that says something kind when others are piling on; the kind that will hold within the tension of what is and what should be without getting impatient and exhibiting anger. Perhaps this is what Silesius, the German mystic of the 17th century meant when he said: “Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that birth will be of no avail to us unless he is born into our hearts.”
Eunice Cheshire
Spiritual Director
HeartPaths DFW