It’s been nine months. Nine months of stay-at-home orders and daily briefings. Nine months of seeing family & friends through screens. Nine months of sadness, fear, and mourning. That’s such a long time.

But do you know what else we can do in nine months? We can grow and birth new life into the world. I think it’s oddly fitting that in our ninth month of the COVID pandemic we have come to Advent and Christmas. The last month of pregnancy is all about waiting and anticipation, discomfort and impatience, starts & stops, anxiety. You never quite know when the next great adventure will begin. And who doesn’t feel those things from time to time, right now. who isn’t feeling impatient, uncomfortable, anxious?

So in this ninth month I invite us to really take a look what this season means and what December 25^th holds – a newborn baby. The birth of new hope, new life, new beginnings.  And they come so humbly, in a manger watched over by animals. What are you going to give birth to in 2021? What is this world going to be? What is our new hopeful, humble beginning that we are bringing into the world? Remember, like babies, they can start small and be nurtured and grow.

I hope that, like in that manger under a star, that it is the birth of Love.

Shared by Siobhan Tull