My Advent reading this year is again using the collection from Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas. I have read it before, but the diversity of the authors viewpoints always challenges me and helps me focus on living out my faith in the yearning time of Advent.

Today’s reading was by Loretta Ross-Gotta. She compares the act of contemplative prayer to being a pregnant virgin. Mary did nothing on her own to become pregnant. Instead, by BEING available and yielded, and offering herself as “a space within herself for God to dwell,” she showed a clear picture of what it means to be “in relationship with God.”

Then I read this:

“Jesus observed, “without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Yet we act, for the most part, as though without us God can do nothing.”

Well, ouch. I’m a doing, not a being person. But this phrase stopped me in my tracks.

Lord,

as I reflect your Light today, may it not be by what I DO, but where I AM, wherever you take me today.

Amen.

I saw a tree by the riverside one day as I walked along.
Straight as an arrow and pointing to the sky growing tall and strong.
“How do you grow so tall and strong?” I said to the riverside tree.
This is the song my tree friend sang to me:

Chorus:
I’ve got roots growing down to the water,
I’ve got leaves growing up to the sunshine,
and the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nest for the birds of the heavens.
I’m becoming what the Lord of trees has meant me to be:
A strong young tree.

I saw a tree in the wintertime, when snow lay on the ground.
Straight as an arrow and pointing to the sky winter winds blew all around.
“How do you stay so tall and strong?” I said to the wintertime tree.
This is the song my tree friend sang to me:

Chorus:
I’ve got roots growing down to the water,
I’ve got leaves growing up to the sunshine,
and the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nest for the birds of the heavens.
I’m becoming what the Lord of trees has meant me to be:
A strong young tree.

I saw a tree in the city streets, where buildings blocked the sun.
Green and lovely I could see it gave joy to everyone.
“How do you grow in the city streets?” I said to the downtown tree.
This is the song my tree friend sang to me:

Chorus:
I’ve got roots growing down to the water,
I’ve got leaves growing up to the sunshine,
and the fruit that I bear is a sign of the life in me.
I am shade from the hot summer sundown.
I am nest for the birds of the heavens.
I’m becoming what the Lord of trees has meant me to be:
A strong young tree.

~Ken Medema