The email arrived today, stating in bold letters across the top: PLAN AHEAD FOR ADVENT!

It caught my attention alright. Wasn’t Holy Week last week? Didn’t we just put away the flowering cross form, the Lenten paraments, and clean out the dying lilies? Isn’t there a pile of drying palms, ready to burn for next year’s Ash Wednesday? What month is it?

Life since Easter has been busy and chaotic. The pile on my desk is a testimony to the aftermath of preaching, preparing services and funerals, and getting my taxes turned in on time. (See? Miracles still exist!)

At first I thought they had sent the wrong marketing email. And then I was drawn back to the promises of the Resurrection…

Jesus said in Matthew 28:20b
…And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen.”

From Revelation 21:3-4
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

The Advent is a minute, a day, a year, a millenia away… but Truth does not change. And there’s no time like now to start preparing the way of the Lord.

So thank you, marketing peeps. You put my thoughts back on the right track.

Blessed be.