Unexchangeable (Advent #3)

Each In His Or Her Own Way

Advent is about God coming near to us in an idiosyncratic manner. He comes to each one of us differently—that is, he shows up in our lives in his own wise and mysterious way. The logos breaks through into human existence and finally whispers into your ear like the wind blowing across the desert sands in a knowing (or unknowing) manner. (Doesn’t Jesus allude to this cryptic, spiritual truth in his discussion with the learned Nicodemus (John 3:8)?)

The Divine Voice gently washes over you with her unceasing breakers of compassionate love. She comes, acts, heals, restores—each of us with our peculiar imperfections—touching us in the depths of our brokenness so that we might be soothed by the heavenly balm.

So we have it. The loveliness of God’s blessed Advent comes to heal you and me in our uniqueness (each fingertip especially designated and not just for the authors of crime novellas!) Victor Frankl writing from the depths of his own pain cast an illuminating glance our way when he penned these words:

Let us not forget that each individual person is imperfect, but each is imperfect in a different way, each “in his or her own way.” And as imperfect as they are, they are uniquely imperfect. So, expressed in a positive way, each person becomes somehow irreplaceable, unable to be represented by anyone else, unexchangeable. (Victor Frankl, Yes to Life)

We are solitary in our imperfections (as in our perfections) and because of this we are “irreplaceable and unexchangeable” before the holy fires. The One of Grace smiles in this season of nearness. Perhaps we can return the heavenly gaze with a smile of our own in this blissful (or bleak) December moment?