Advent 2022: Love for Outcasts
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Love grieves.
Some of the most pivotal moments in my life could only be pivotal because of love. In moments of joy, love moved me to celebrate. But in moments of pain, love compelled me to grieve. When love grows, grief’s potential grows, too.
Our deepest longings are met with love and in love. The heart yearns, sometimes for something or someone who isn’t there. Or maybe it’s someone we don’t yet know. And love is when we find someone or some place filling that longing within us. Love gives us an overwhelming sense of home. It whispers, “This is how things ought to be.”
But grief—grief hits when that sense of home is broken.
In her Reimagining Christmas reflections, Joy Vetterlein writes of Mary, the mother of Jesus, “I used to think of her as Mary, the good girl, Mary the mother of Jesus the Messiah. But now, as I reimagine her, I can see her as Mary, a woman of grief.”
I think of Mary as the one whose womb became a home for the God-child who would grow to become a home for all of us. In him is the fulfillment of everything lost in Eden. In him, we find so much hope and promise.
The longing to have Christ come and fix all that is broken lives within me. Just as I believe Mary’s body broke to bear the Person of Home, bringing him earthside, I believe everything broken will be made new. But we’re also allowed to grieve the breaking.
Love says, “Your grief is okay.” It says we are right to express sorrow. Sorrow says, “Things are not as they should be.”
Each person cast out of communities and exiled with eagerness by broken leaders & pastors knows what it is to be floating, aimless and alone. Many outcasts brace ourselves for the next iceberg ahead. Because we loved, we grieve the journey we are on—the path we never wanted.
This Advent I hope every outcast and misfit finds themselves floating not toward icebergs, but carried away from them. That you sense the waters moving you toward a place of peace, and away from a punitive people. And I hope that as you move and remember all that you love, you feel love reminding you, “Things are not as they should be.” And from love, I hope you give your sorrow space.
With you & for you,
Jenai 🌾
Visio Divina
I explained Visio Divina in my previous Advent post on hope.
But for those who are new, let me explain.
If you’re familiar with Lectio Divina (Latin for Divine Reading), you’ll know the practice is centered around viewing Scripture as a living word. Each reading is contemplated and centered around the person of Christ.
Visio Divina (Diving Seeing) is much the same, but with images. I created a series of Advent drawings with Visio Divina in mind, hoping that as you reflect on each image, you could experience the presence of Christ and the greater communion of the saints in the lonely journeys we walk.
My hope with each image is that you take a moment to reflect and find an extension of peace and rest as well as resonance.
You’ll find my additional thoughts on experiencing Advent as an outcast and misfit on Instagram.
For those interested in using this image as a wallpaper for your phone:
For those who have deconverted from any sort of faith tradition, but still find spiritual things sacred, you might enjoy Joy Vetterlein’s Reimagining Christmas book of reflections.
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