We asked our community to creatively interact with our advent themes and submit their creations to that we could share and celebrate them together.
Enjoy this poem and reflection from Sue Fulmore.
Into a world divided, plagued by violence and uprisings, came the most unlikely sign of hope.
The nation, ruled by a paranoid and divisive leader, was fracturing.
The people of God lived in their own land as exiles, unwanted and oppressed.
Riots and tensions erupted and spilled over into the streets.
The people who lived in darkness were about to see a great light.
The promised One came wrapped in helpless infancy,
His humble arrival issuing in a new world order,
where the most unlikely
the poor,
the shamed,
the young,
the dismissed,
the forgotten,
the insecure,
the grieving,
and the doubting, are esteemed.
Hope came and still comes into the darkest
Of days to the people most forgotten.
The way this poem is structured creates an image of a chalice, a goblet. In traditional churches a chalice is often the container for the wine during the Eucharist, or communion. It is representative of the pouring out of the life of Jesus on our behalf.
At Advent our thoughts might also consider the pouring out of Jesus’ privileges when He came to earth as a needy infant. He came to experience all of life along with us – to fully enter into what it means to be human. In doing so He bridged the divide between God and humanity. We have a God who draws near, who understands all we are facing, and who turns our culture’s assessment of who has value completely upside down.