The Psalmist, and Isaiah, and Paul and Matthew all share this vision of something new breaking in during this season we call Advent - a season of the odd-pairings of reality and possibility that up to now has existed only in the world of dreamers. Advent is the season of wondering, wondering what it would it take for us to believe in, and bring into being, a world where such unlikely pairings would exist not just in dreams and visions, but real in our lifetime?

I was listening to NPR last Saturday and they were airing a program focused on World AIDS Day. There were lots of statistics and numbers being bandied about. One set of statistics that struck me is that, world-wide, 6000 people a day, every day, will die from AIDS and that 7000 people a day, every day, will become infected with the AIDS virus. Many times for me, those kinds of numbers and statistics are meaningless. I try to make sense of them, I try to put faces to numbers, but by lumping 13,000 people together like that, it becomes hard for me to imagine, let alone understand.

Even after all the theological training, sermons preached and prayers prayed, I continue to come to our Advent texts daunted, challenged, even a little disappointed that I'm so ready to embrace the baby-Jesus and yet, can't hold him until I wrestle with these ‘end of time' texts!....As the days grow shorter and light fades into winter, the season of Advent begins a new church year by inviting us to peer into the darkness of what cannot yet be seen, but already has been imagined by Isaiah and Jesus and Paul.

As the daylight was fading, we walked together along the shore. I was nervous but still found myself pouring out my heart to him, voicing my uncertainties and fears. He put his arm around my shoulder, giving me a reassuring squeeze. I continued talking, perhaps using words to shield myself from what I felt or—even more—to prevent asking him how he felt. Finally he stopped walking, took me by the shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and spoke: "What will it take," Jesus told me, "for me to convince you I love you?"