How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. ~Phillips Brooks
Addicted To Noise
Silence has no place in this look-at-me world.
“Look at me,” the pickle-man dances, costumed on the street-corner in hopes of sandwich-shop success. “Look at me,” the newspaper’s Sunday-ads clamor, flooding my kitchen table with extravagant claims.
Everywhere, in this chilly December, blinking lights beguile, merry-music beckons, promising
- prices slashed,
- dreams-come-true,
- the life you’ve always longed for, 30% off.
Noise hogs the microphone, and never stops demanding,
Taste me, try me, fear me, consume me! You will never be happy until you have your fill.
“Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains could quake in your presence,” even the prophet Isaiah cries.
Yes, God, my heart answers. Shake us up, make some noise, topple pretension, upend the arrogant. Make everything right with a loud smack of your hand.
Stunned By Silence
And God’s answer? A tiny child. His entrance, subtle–easy to ignore. No trembling in the mountains, few of us quaking before the God who has, as the prophet pleaded, come down.
“Mild he lays his glory by,” leaving us to pursue our own.
Forgive us, Jesus.
We prance through the season like the pickle-man, trying to make the world go our way. We fling our prayers, our commercial-fed demands, for everything but what we truly need. We turn up the volume, we exalt our efforts, we hog the microphone and claim it is you speaking.
Yet, you entered our world in heartbreaking silence. No ads, no promotion, no stretch limousine. Only a few were told you’d arrived. Only a few seem to know, you have arrived.
“How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given.” What love is this, that it will not beguile and persuade, not shout at and shake us? It’s a love that comes in silence, and yet it comes to stay.
Stop (you will find him). Look (you will see him). Listen (you will hear him). Christ walks among us in this look-at-me world.
What do you do this time of year to receive the gift of silence?
I’m grateful for all who subscribed to e-mail this week–we have a winner drawn for a free book, but I hope you all enjoy my blog! Thank you, Melanie Hunt, for your photos, so beautifully complementing this Advent series. Today’s picture was taken in Yosemite.
12 replies on “Second Gift of Advent: Silence”
Oh Janet, your words…truths, stop me in my ‘hectic’ tracks this morn. Thank you! My soul is stilled. Im reminded (as I will need several times every day) once more what this “here” is all about. Peace and endless gratitude consume me once again.
A different kind of consuming–well said!
Talk about convicting! You are so right that is really easy to get caught up in Christmas as the world views it where you have to get the latest and greatest item for a loved one/friend, but forgetting the real reason of Christmas! Definitely makes me stop and quiet my mind to remember that Jesus did come “quietly”!
“The latest and greatest” never stays that way for long. Thank you, Laura.
I needed to hear these words this morning as I head out the door to do some Christmas shopping. God has been encouraging me to practice solitude and silence so that I can allow Him to calm me down and to hear His voice. Not easy for this Type A personality. I have the time now as not working. Pray I will embrace the time. Thank you for taking the time to write these Advent devotionals each day. You bless me.
I pray you will be unable to resist Christ’s calm presence, Sylvie!
I do not try to out give God’s gift of hope.
25 years ago I learned that Christmas celebrated was to receive God’s gift of hope.
Keeping the focus on it being Christ’s birth and His birthday. I kept the gifts for my son to 3. Remembering The three gifts brought by the wise men. Less is more. This feels much like the parting of the Red Sea in our over commercialized life.
I’m glad you reminded me of the 3 gift idea. Yes, less is so often more.
Nice reminder. It’s my first time here. I like your blog and I’ll check back.
Thanks for stopping by, Dan!
Janet,
All of this resonates so much with me. It seems to me as I grow older and hopefully more immune to the pressure of commercialism during our Christmas season , that what I love the most is the quiet- the time for taking photos and for listening to the different kind of ‘hustle and bustle’– of nature. I love it that God’s creations, all but us anyway, don’t know that it’s Christmas and they are just waiting for us to enjoy them, like any other day. It’s very cool that the Lord is that way too- there for us every day, not just at Christmas time.
Melanie, the “hustle and bustle” of nature never leaves us drained, does it? Thank you for the photographs that bring that quiet close.