Being the Beloved:
stories of ongoing transformation in daily life
By Wanda Dorsing, Spiritual Director
I am one who loves Christmas and contemplates “how early is too early to start with the music and decorations?” I also don’t want to crowd out Thanksgiving celebrations with too much too soon! What has emerged over the years to honor both desires, is a genre of music I call “pre-Christmas music,” and just one “pre-Christmas” decoration. This decoration comes out well before Advent. It is a plain gray stump that I set on my counter along with Thanksgiving pumpkins.
This stump leads to my pre-Christmas meditation based on Isaiah 11:1
A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots.
Even a non-gardener knows the difference between a flourishing tree and a stump. A stump is what is left when a tree is cut down. Perhaps the tree was no longer healthy or even dead. Perhaps it was healthy, but someone decided the billowing tree needed to go. A stump does not exude life and fruitfulness. Instead, it exudes loss, uselessness, unfulfilled expectations.
There on my counter, the stump invites me to consider the places in my life or in the world that seem barren, places where my hope has faltered or been lost:
The longings, the losses, places I had hoped for progress that remain unchanged
Circumstances that feel stuck or hopeless
Anywhere my soul feels lifeless or devoid of growth
But my stump is also an image of hope--a gentle reminder that a stump may still have roots, and sometimes sends up new shoots because of them. It is my prompt to pray, with hope, about all the things in my life and world that the stump represents. I take courage from the image in Isaiah, praying for grace to see tender shoots that may be sprouting.
Before I embrace the familiar Advent rhythms of joy, hope, peace, and love, I meditate on the stumps of the past year.
Maybe you would like to join in my prayer:
God, you bring life in places of barrenness, loss, and unmet expectations. May I enter this Advent season scanning my life and your world for life sprouting from stumps. I watch and wait for your coming this Advent. Amen
What books, media, activities are nurturing your heart, soul, mind, strength in this season as we are loving God and our neighbor as ourselves? Post in the comments below or hop on over to our Facebook page and share with one another.