Wednesday, December 15

This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight."
—Matthew 3:3

Throughout Advent, our focus has been on preparing for the coming of Christ, the living Word of God. On one hand, this seems straightforward enough: We dust off the crèche, put up the tree, and get out our Christmas CDs. If we’re feeling particularly “spiritual,” we might purchase an Advent calendar or make an Advent wreath. On a good day, we might even consider slowing down a little, or perhaps contemplate the implications of our overspending.

Not to say these ideas don’t have merit, but they aren’t exactly what the Gospel writers had in mind. How do we, then, prepare for the coming of Christ? For 14th century German mystic Meister Eckhart, the answer lay not so much in getting ready for a singular event, but in making ourselves available to God day by day.

As Eckhart put it, “He who is always alone is worthy of God, and to him who is always at home is God present, and in him who stands always in the present does God the Father bear his Son unceasingly.” That is, be aware of your own solitude before God; don’t run from it. Be “at home” in the here and now; don’t think of yourself as just passing through on your way to heaven. Know that God is with you always, giving birth to himself again and again in your life.

Festive and stressful at once, the seasons of Advent and Christmas often leave us hungry for something beyond words. Perhaps part of that continual longing is for the kind of integrity of which Eckhart spoke, a life in which the heart of God is woven seamlessly into our souls.

O God, help us to know You as You make Yourself present in our midst, in the noise of humanity, in the silence of the stars.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.