A year and a half ago, my husband Andy and I became homeowners. We bought Andy's grandparents' house, where they'd lived for more than a half century, and it has been such a joy to add our own memories to the family memories that already dwell there. One of the greatest joys of homeownership has been getting to learn more about caring for the wonderful garden spaces that Andy's grandfather tended so carefully during their years in the house. I admit that Andy is more of the gardener in our household, but I enjoyed tending a small vegetable garden plot this summer and watching the earth transform before my eyes with cherry tomatoes, green peppers, herbs, and lettuce. Through the seasons, our garden, trees, and yard have all borne witness to the unique rhythms of the earth, reminding us that God is present in all the seasons of life.
This year, the first day of December is also the first day of the Advent season, when the Church across the world commits to a season of watching and waiting for the coming Christ. In a number of Advent hymns, poets have imagined the earth readying itself for the Christ child's birth. What a marvelous image! In the corner of the world where Sing For Joy is produced and where I make my home, Advent happens during a dark, cold season, and the earth is often blanketed with snow (or at least with frost). The feeling of that season is echoed in a hymn we'll hear on our December 29 program, Cold December Flies Away.
Of course, not all of our neighbors across the world will celebrate Advent in quite the same climate. The music of the season offers us diverse expressions of earth's readying for Jesus! On December 1, Sing For Joy listeners will enjoy a delightful setting of Eleanor Farjeon's hymn Carol of the Advent, which imagines that all manner of creatures are readying themselves for Jesus's arrival. The earth is preparing its soil for new growth; birds are guarding their nests; stars are preparing for the new star's arrival; and angels will "set every peak and valley humming with the word: The Lord is coming!" Later in the season, we'll hear James Bobb's setting of Toda la Tierra, a hymn originally written in Spanish that invites us to imagine the earth's transformation as an active form of waiting for Christmas. The text proclaims, "Mountains and valleys will have to be prepared; new highways opened, new protocols declared. Almost here! God is nearing in beauty and grace! All clear every gateway, in haste, come out in haste!"
As you move through this Advent season with eager anticipation, I wonder how you might imagine creation's part in this cosmic story of incarnation and redemption. In your own corner of the world, how does the earth bear witness to the silent growth of a world that is, in the words of Rory Cooney's hymn, "about to turn?"
Advent blessings to you all, Sing For Joy listeners,
