Stuck

Yesterday I walked by a toy store window that featured a display helpfully reporting the number of days remaining till Christmas.  Not so helpfully, I was informed that we had 28 days to go.  Now, one need not be a math major to know that on Dec. 6 that information was just plain wrong.  Why wasn't the information updated?  Why had it been left unchanged for a week?  All sorts of possibilities presented themselves: people were too busy, too harried, too distracted, too forgetful.  Honestly, I haven't a clue as to why the store was telling passers-by that there four weeks to go when in truth there were less than three.

But I wondered: what if they were stuck?  What if the folks in that store couldn't imagine moving forward?  Routine can be comforting.  It can be a source of support and reassurance.  Staying where we are can help us feel grounded in turbulent times.  But doing so can also cause us to miss out on possibilities and opportunities, on growth and healing and reconciliation.

This Advent, when so much is going on, when we might want to hunker down, let's resist the temptation.  Let's get unstuck.  Let's move forward with prayer and anticipation towards Bethlehem.

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