“Look at the heavens, and see;
    and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.”
~Job 35:5~

I found myself praying in the early morning hours, “Heavenly Father, please meet my needs.” I said it again, several times, without analyzation. While the mind was going a mile a minute, it somewhere occurred to me I ought to start praying. I take the presence of God for granted, assuming at times that since he’s there, I’m automatically operating from a state of inner peace and tranquility.

Even now as I write I want to return to the to-do list, to cover up with a blanket and sleep through the weeks, through the rest of my life if it’ll spare me this churning. The words of a different preparation meet me humming, offering freely a song from congregations afar, “Let us cast aside the sleep of idleness, and with vigilance of soul let us sing to Christ, who is born of a pure Maiden.”

I give voice to Christ first, the rest can come later. I haven’t the strength now to shout it, but somewhere, someone else does. “Listen, mountains and hills, and lands around Judea, for Christ is coming to save man whom He fashioned, since He loves mankind.” My heart perhaps is stilled there, quickening at the thought of love to fill the whole earth, and once again we are carried.

~

*quotes taken from Meditations for Advent by Vassilios Papavassiliou