Advent Day 16: A week away, a world away?<\/p>\n
If Christmas Eve is only one week away, why does it seem like a world away?<\/p>\n
We’re in the thick of the Advent season, now. Perhaps it is increasingly difficult to take that little, extra time to pray and prepare. Perhaps our quiet time is being pushed farther and farther down the “to do” list. Perhaps the Advent wreath candles have already burnt down, and we don’t have more to replace them with.<\/p>\n
Yes, now is a difficult part of the holiday season. And, we might already be fearing that we won’t get everything done by Christmas. Especially if you have a chronic illness, now might be a time when a cold, flu, or other infection starts to nibble away at precarious health. How much that would further derail carefully made plans!<\/p>\n
But, you know what? It’s all all right.<\/p>\n
Whether or not the cards are mailed before or after December 25, whether or not the extra side dish for the pot luck does or doesn’t get made, whether or not we get a cold or stay healthy – still, Christmas will come. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>God’s love does not abandon us because we forget a gift, skip a party, or just don’t have the energy to get out of bed and get on with the day. He is constant. He is present. He is.<\/p>\n So, however far away Christmas Eve may seem, Advent and Christmas are already here. And we can rest in, revel in, that instead of fretting over how much more we have to do in so short a period of time.<\/p>\n How wonderful is that?!<\/p>\n Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advent Day 16: A week away, a world away? If Christmas Eve is only one week away, why does it seem like a world away? We’re in the thick of the Advent season, now. Perhaps it is increasingly difficult to take that little, extra time to pray and prepare. Perhaps our quiet time is being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,3,43,4],"tags":[225,2120,285,16,47,183,19,284],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-2012","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","tag-advent","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-eve","tag-fatigue","tag-god","tag-gods-love","tag-illness","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"\n