“The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isa 25:8)

Advent joy. Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness.

"While happiness is reliant on exterior conditions, joy is "the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing – sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death – can take that love away." Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sorrow."

Ted Loder offers this prayer called, “God’s Timing”

O God of all seasons and senses,

grant us the sense of your timing to submit gracefully and rejoice quietly in the turn of the seasons.

In this season of short days and long nights, of grey and white and cold, teach us the lessons of endings;

children growing, friends leaving, grieving over, grudges over, blaming over, excuses over.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.

In this season of short days and long nights, of grey and white and cold, teach us the lessons of beginnings;

that such waiting's and endings may be the starting place,

a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—

something right and just and different, a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—

in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant us the sense of your timing.

Finally, the late John O' Donohue  encourages, let us not, "let our days fall away like empty shells and miss all the treasure… Each day is a secret story woven around the radiant heart of wonder. The sacred duty of being an individual is to gradually learn how to live so as to awaken the eternal within you." 

I wish to express how grateful I am for all the treasures you have bestowed upon me in this life. May they return to you a thousand fold. May you know joy and may the peace that surpasses all understanding be with you in every waking moment.

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Artwork by ~liz