As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Psalms 103:13-14

It’s the most miraculous truths that I am the most likely to forget. Things about a Jesus who comes and dwells in the midst of us, makes holy mortal bodies, and announces the goodness of flesh are the stories of Advent that get a lot of attention. They are the things that we talk about the most because they are the things that scandalize us the most. I understand that; they scandalize me, too. I, too, cannot easily reconcile the good God who looks at flesh and, where I see saggy, lumpy, dirty, dying, pronounces it beautiful, luminous, vibrant, resurrected. The scandal of Advent is not unknown to me, but I admit that this is not the scandal of my attention, it is not the part of the story I am likely to forget.

What I am likely to forget because of too much repetition and hurrying by is the scandal that God was and is mindful of me. You, too, but for a moment I am lingering on the part that is individual—God was and is mindful of me. That’s not fancy or loud or the big punchline in the sermon that gets everyone on their feet and causes a real stir, but can you take a moment with me and just hear that for the first time again? The God who made everything and is making everything was and is mindful of me and of you. Now wait a moment and don’t leave that too soon. Don’t hurry from that to the place where you say, “God was and is mindful in spite of …” because that in spite of is not the point. I don’t even believe in the in spite of some days.

Some days, these days, I think God just loves us. I think God just delights in us. So I think that I need a moment to say out loud that God is just mindful of me and of you. The song of Mary: “He has remembered me!”

Do you hear? He has remembered us! Stop a moment in the flurry of trying to find the deep big thing to reflect on and just take the measure of the awe of that for a moment. And then try to never leave from its wonder.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Do you ever get still enough to remember that God is mindful of you? What does the mindfulness of God mean to you personally, right now? How does God’s mindfulness inform your own? What would it look like for you to be mindful of others today?

PRAYER: Gracious God, who is marvelous and generous and wildly in love with us and desires our every good, keep us in the knowledge of your nearness and delight in us, your mindfulness of us and generosity to us, which we know best through our brother and savior, Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the mighty Spirit we give every praise and thanksgiving and honor. Amen.

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Advent in Us

“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace” (1 Cor. 15:10).

The grace of God through Christ Jesus is not a passive presence in our lives. The grace of God is at work in us, building us up and moving us to action and growth, to good work and worship. Everything we accomplish and all we become is because of the grace of Christ. In this, the first week of Advent, let’s remember Advent in Us, the gift of grace through our Lord Jesus. Let’s consider ways to discover anew the work of grace in our work, our lives, and our relationship with God.