This might be a two-fold lament of the Advent/Christmas season. Do you find yourself being wistful this time of year, longing for simpler, more pleasant times? We do catch ourselves stopping and remembering, even as all the events and programs blur together and the precious short time careens and accelerates until poof! Christmas Eve has come and gone.

The matter of what we can’t get back becomes who we can’t get back. I walked into the church office a little earlier this morning, like 7:30-ish. Checking in with our secretary, learning of the death of one of our member’s fathers. Eight days before Christmas. Suddenly, albeit not entirely unexpected. How will Christmas ever again be “normal” for her? It’s the loved ones we can’t get back (yet). Every Advent/Christmas we think of them as we choke back sobs and reach for the nearest tissue box. In our lowest moments, we ponder with regret missed opportunities; that one year we didn’t go home for Christmas because life had gotten too messy, too complicated – and that person back home died before the next Christmas. We can’t get back time, even with that “fall back” clock adjustment at the end of October. Oh yeah, we deceive ourselves into thinking we’ll get another chance. We learn to live with regret or we go crazy with guilt and remorse. Learn from it we must (thank you, Yoda).

We do have a lot of keepsakes. For many of us, this time of year is the companion of spring cleaning. In my sermon for the First Sunday of Advent, I suggested that what John the Baptist proposed was an “Advent cleaning”. Prepare your hearts; prepare him room. Repent and believe the new thing (Savior) being presented to you. For a lot of us, it is giving away what we can live without: extra blankets, bedsheets, silverware sets that can be repurposed by those who have not. Clothes, Christmas decorations; the possibilities are limitless. But there are things too precious to part with. “No-brainers” like old photos, ornaments hand-made by our children decades ago. We keep these things because they are treasures in our hearts. Like the dear souls we can’t get back (yet). We extend gracious love by spending time with them while they are still here. We don’t waste the opportunity. When the choice of time is a dilemma, you will never go wrong by choosing the better part. Be with someone; schedule that. This is a time, a season of being with our Lord’s precious possession – each other. Permit His unconditional love, that forgiving grace, to enfold you in these accelerating days.

Pastor Art