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O Lord, how shall I meet you?
O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
--Paul Gerhardt, 1653
How do we prepare our hearts to welcome God? John the Baptist calls us to repent. He does not want anything to stand in the way of our meeting Christ when he comes. Mary calls us to ponder the mystery of the Incarnation in our hearts. She knows that there are some truths, which cannot be explained in human terms, but must be trusted to God. Jesus, himself, calls us to wait and watch for we know not when he will return. But that does not mean that we simply sit back and do nothing.
Like the Magi, we too must seek him in our lives. Poet Ann Weems believes:
Look for the Messiah where we will, we will find him where we live.
He will not be separated and kept apart from those who cry to him.
He will be found right in the midst of the daily, routine, ordinary stuff of life.
So wherever we're living look for him.
In the ordinary niches of that living look for the holy
that the holy might be found in us.
Finding and discovering that the holy dwells within ourselves is hard for many of us to accept. Yet, I believe it is an integral part of living an incarnational faith. As Meister Eckhart, a 14th century mystic, put it: "What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son, if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in us." How do we know when the Son of God is begotten in us? Some clues can be found in how we live. Have set aside such things as enmity, strife, jealousy, and anger? Does our living reveal a spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Are our hearts ready and receptive? Is there a willingness to unlearn old habits that hold us apart from God? Are we open to finding God in the ordinary? While deceptively simple, these are some of the ways in which we can welcome God aright. May the presence of the Holy One be found in you this season of Advent! 
Debbie Rundlett
General Presbyter
Holy Habit: Yearning Pray through Psalm 63 Do you remember counting down the days to Christmas as a child? It seemed as if Christmas would never come. The days stretched out like years. With each day the anticipation would grow and the yearning deepen. Our childhood yearnings have something to teach us about Israel's yearning for God. As the Psalmist cries out: "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (verse 1). For what do you yearn? Do you even know? Or is your life so full that there is no place for yearning, no place for longing? Where is God in the midst of your yearning? Take some time this week to pray through Psalm 63. You might want to journal or even memorize a verse or two that speaks to the longings deep within you. Then come to God in prayer. Dare to name the yearnings deep within your heart and give them to God and see what God will do with them. And then dare to pray with the church through time: "Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free." | 
