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By Cassidy Salter

In times of uncertainty, anxiety, or wandering, I find it helpful to turn to the book of Psalms. In the Psalms we find a breadth of language to narrate our human experience in faithful conversation with God. We can find examples of joy and sorrow; anger and thanksgiving; movement and rest.

As our country shifts in response to another divisive election year and expectations of what follows, we move immediately into a frenzied holiday season filled with travel, often additional financial burdens, family dynamics, and untethered schedules. While there is joy and togetherness to celebrate (it is the most wonderful time of the year!), many of us may also feel uncertain, anxious, and wandering. The Psalms make space for us to hold all of those feelings together. Or perhaps better put; the words of the Psalms are a place God makes space for us to feel these things and still be whole.

If right now, in this swirling season of life, you are like me and seeking grounding, you might find that Psalm 147 holds words of assurance and peaceful breath of life. It is a song that begins with praise for a God who gathers us in, offers healing for the brokenhearted, and names the stars. The words remind us God provides rain for the earth and food for the animals and delights in those who hope. God blesses and offers peace. These words might offer us comfort and orient our hope in the midst of life right now, and also call us to a particular kind of hope for the future.

As Christians, we are called to hope that is born of knowing that God is creator of all things good, and God is restorer of all things broken. In the meantime, God is with us, our sustainer through highs and lows. We are called to a greater understanding of the goodness that can be born out of all things in God’s hands. We are called to recognize a fuller picture of the arch of God’s story, that starts, ends, and flourishes with love.

As we look ahead to the season of Advent, we can speak the same truths of Christ’s inbreaking this year as we have each year before. Each year we may come to this season with different life experiences, and yet each year we remember that we get to receive Christ, and hope might be renewed. As the church year falls, this Sunday we will proclaim the reign of Christ, and announce his coming. Our focus shifts forward.

So, with a lens of hope rooted in the truth of God’s love and the language of the Psalms, what do we know heading into Advent?

First, we remember we are loved by a God of abundance. A God who is pouring love over us even as we struggle… even as our culture feels divided.
We announce the coming this year and every year of a God of love; abundant love that can fill the spaces and emptiness; abundant love that is at work even amidst the challenges we experience. As Christians, we hope to have eyes for the good that exists among us already, and to recognize the new ways God continues to break in, exactly where we are this Advent.

We announce the love of a God whose grace means each of us is made in the image of that same love, differently gifted, called together to reflect God’s creativity, and uniquely able to offer love and to bear Christ’s image in the world.

This in fact, is the Good News. God loves us! So much that God names the stars and blesses our children and shows us resurrection again and again and again.

Sometimes as Advent approaches and we find ourselves immersed in cultural frenzy, we become more aware of our struggles. Ironically, this also means we are perhaps more aware of our need for Jesus to show up. We have the gift of a reminder that God chose to be among us and shows us that we are created of rich abundant love, that we are in fact loved in eternal grace, and to show us the way to love in the world.

As we prepare to turn in the calendar to the Advent season, may you know the truth of a God who is working for good among us, and point to those places loud and clear as we speak hope of God’s coming. May you know resurrection among even the deepest sorrows, as the Psalmist says, God binds up our wounds. May you know the blessing of making room for everyone’s goodness in the diversity of God’s creation. May you approach Advent with hope, and trust in God’s abundance, so that through you, God’s light will shine for others.

As we prepare to receive Christ, may you like the Psalmist sing praises in hope of God’s inbreaking as proclamation of what was, is, and will be. May you be assured that God’s story starts, ends, and flourishes with love.

Cassidy Salter is the pastor at Ware’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Washington.