It’s the unlikely pairings of peace, hope and harmony, that this wise counselor, holy night birthing will deliver. In spite of visions to the contrary, that we are surrounded with every day, the Advent of Jesus provides the inspiration for hymnody with animals and babies taking center stage.

In my own home, there is some example of the peaceable kingdom! Our Maine coon-cat, Jeremiah, reserves his spot every sermon writing weekend, on my computer table…all the while two parakeets and one English budgie make an occasional dive towards both our heads. Jeremiah barely raises an eyebrow. I like to imagine that he actually enjoys their flying and swooping around! We also have a finch cage…I call it ‘Birdie-TV’…in the cage there are 5 finches, no two of the same order and two of them keep on mating anyway, and laying eggs and taking turns with endless sitting on their nest. Of course, there is Frieda…who gets along with everyone and every creature she has ever met. The most interesting coupling is a former music major—marching band guy who never got in trouble a day in his life married to the PE major—play every sport I could & getting in a mess of Tom-boy trouble at every turn!

When we are asked to wait and watch and prepare for the quickly approaching birth in Bethlehem, what over turnings of our expectations will we allow, what odd pairings of dreamers’ imaginings will we dare to shape and form in our world? Advent is about preparing for this birth, this branch of the shoot of the stump of Jesse – preparing either to let this great overturning take place, or deciding to put it on hold for another year.

I got to this question in my own spiritual pilgrimage through Advent this year by sitting alone, in this space, one evening this past week by holding an imaginary infant Jesus in my arms…this baby looked like every infant I’ve ever held…in my family, my friend’s babies, babies I’ve cradled in the hospital during my tenure as a chaplain and every baby I’ve ever baptized. That was the beginning of a startling yet simple revelation. I was struck, felt something physically in my chest, what must it be like for God, our Lord, to preside over every single birth…and every single act of emotional and physical violence, stretching from acts of snarkiness and clubbiness to overt misogyny and hate mongering to raising ones fist against another to the God forgive us, pointing missiles of mass destruction against people we don’t even know! It was also at that moment, that this baby Jesus, who is each of us, took on the full spectrum of all creation…she was olive skinned with almond shaped eyes, deep brown then becoming rivers of the deepest blue/green…hair was course and dark yet all at once became wispy and light and the beginnings of a smile reminded me that the language of infants is universal. The cooing and silence, grunting and snuggling say, hold me, I’m vulnerable, perfect and holy and pure, ready to grow up and reflect what I will learn from everyone around me. This is how I am preparing for the birth of Jesus…this baby in my arms held up a mirror, and in the darkened silence said, this is what I will learn to be, by being with you. This is what I will learn to be, by being at St. Thomas’...by being born in this place again this year, whether or not you are ready.