Fourth Thursday

a devotional for Advent

Hello, dear friends!

Our journey through Advent is nearly over, and the Christmas feast is nearly upon us!

A final note: I will be taking the Christmas week off from posting here to spend time resting and savoring the start of the twelve days of Christmas, so we will reconvene here on the following Monday, January 2nd, in a brand-new year!

I hope you enjoy this last entry of 2022!

Merry Christmas!

Blessings,

S.E. Reid

---

the sky owns
a dress
for every occasion;

tonight
she tried on
every dress she owned
one after another,
each more perfect
than the last;

and she twirled
like a child
for her Creator,
for the silent applause
of bare branches
for the slip and sliver
of a hushed
and gazing
Moon. 

Four candles flicker in the depth of winter, and the sky is a wash of brilliant color. 

Or perhaps it is gray and gloomy, slate with coming snow or low and pregnant with rain. 

Perhaps the trees clap and sway, or perhaps they are silent and still. 

Everything is waiting. Not long now. 

Advent draws near its close. The Old Story is a furtive whisper, now, a murmur, a muttering like a flock of birds, something swelling like the tide. Every corner of Creation knows the Story, tells it in their own wondering way. 

But the sky, perhaps she remembers it best. 

When the Word spoke first, He split the sky from the earth, and she flew upward and filled with cloud and birds and rain and fog and smoke and seasons and when she thickened, it was day, and when she thinned, it was night, and she held the earth in her embrace. 

When it was time for Him to be born, He did not declare it with fanfare. Instead, He adorned the sky--Firstborn, beauty!--with Star and angels and silence, so that we still sing of her when we sing of His birth. Silent night, holy night...

Sky still blushes with the memory, with love, when she was shot through with Light that deepest night, and all looked up at her with wonder.

---

Thank you for reading!

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