November 30th Advent Devotional
- Rev. Heather Burke
- Nov 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 1
November 30
Isaiah 64:1-3
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
How the mountains would quake in your presence!
As fire causes wood to burn
and water to boil,
your coming would make the nations tremble.
Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
When you came down long ago,
you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations.
And oh, how the mountains quaked!
-Isaiah 64:1-3NLT
The painter Henry Ossawa Tanner really painted my vision of God bursting into human reality in his painting The Annunciation. To the right, a teenage Mary sits on a rumpled bed, head slightly bowed as she gazes to the left at a burst of vertical light. It is as if God has taken a knife to the fabric of reality and rent it in two, only to shine forth from the seams. Undeniable divinity comes to visit the most mundane setting.
That is what I want from God, really. For God to come down in undeniable divinity, as in the days of Sinai and Bethlehem, and fix everything that is wrong.
Three summers ago, at Passport Kids’ Camp, our group discovered a labyrinth on campus. If you’ve never experienced one, a labyrinth is like a meditative maze, except it has only one outlet and a circle at the center. You wouldn’t think a group of 3rd-5th grade students would have much interest in a slow, silent practice like that, but it was lightening in a bottle. It truly was God bursting through and coming down. I sat in the center of the labyrinth with students while they prayed, walked, meditated, and gave each other the space they needed. It became sacred space for all of us.
God didn’t burst through to make any literal mountains tremble or fix any great, systemic problems on my list that day, but God did come down. And perhaps God did set a little fire in a few hearts or start a bit or water boiling in a few souls. If we look back at all the stories of God breaking into human history—at all of God’s awesome deeds—most often, God is working through little fires and boiling waters inside ordinary, faithful people. May God burst into your reality this season and set you alight.
Heather Burke
Children & Family Practice
Week 1
Carrying Hope : Preparing Peace
In the first Sunday of Advent, we are asking the question, what brings you Hope? Share those things with one another and carry that Hope with you this week.
This week’s activity is to read or pray Psalm 23 together every day (or as many as you can). We are getting ready for the Sunday of Peace (Dec 7), but Peace can sometimes take a while to find. We often have to settle down and get quiet on purpose in order to locate Peace. So, let’s practice finding Peace.
You may also want to take time to watch the Godly Play video of The Parable of The Good Shepherd, which tells Psalm 23.
Or you could check out a children’s book version of the Psalm. We have several at church you could borrow.
Found: Psalm 23, by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Psalm 23: A Colors Primer, by Danielle Hitchen
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