Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day: Greetings

I greet you from the other side of sorrow and despair, with a love so vast and shattered it will reach you everywhere. ~Leonard Cohen

Greetings.

This is my parents’ home. The house I grew up in.

I love coming home. It never gets old. Especially this time of year.

The snow. The pine trees. The star on my dad’s flagpole.

There are some funny stories about that star. It used to be on top. How we ever get it up there escapes me. I think it involved a very tall ladder and my sister-in-law shimmying up the flagpole. It seemed like an impossible task, but somehow we did it.

Either way, the star is what greets us when we come home now. It shines bright in these dark days of early winter. It is comforting.

Much like this story:

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

As my friend and colleague Becky said in her post, this story never gets old. It has a home-y feeling to it. After all, it is the part when the angel declares to Mary, and to us for that matter, that God makes God’s home among us.

Which is good news because that means God is with us and for us!

So is the star on my parents' flagpole.

It is a greeting that says, “Do not be afraid. You are home. Rest. All will be well.”