14 December – Linda Clist, St Mary Magdalen

A Peep Through the Advent Calendar Window

By the time you read this, more than half of the windows on our Advent Calendars will be open. Only 10 to go!

Apparently, Advent calendars are a much bigger thing this year. You may already have seen the expensive sets that offer 24 handmade chocolates or choice items of jewellery, etc. The world’s most exclusive is apparently priced at nearly 8 million pounds (!)

My sister and I usually exchange one of those small Advent calendars you can easily send through the post, but this year, she sent me a set of 24 small jigsaws that will together make up the stable scene – something I’ve never seen before. I thought it was a great idea and it will keep us company all through to Christmas.

However, I do have one reservation about Advent calendars, even this one. And that is the danger that if we are counting down to something in the future, we may not be living fully in the present. Every December day is actually a gift of a day, as valuable as any other, and it would be a real shame if we didn’t fully experience the one we’re in – whatever its number. When we’re children, waiting for the 25th can be really painful. (‘How many sleeps now?!’)

As adults, we can get caught up in the same stress. But Christmas should be what it’s meant to be: a celebration of the Baby born to bring peace and love to humankind. Making the most of each day as we live it is part of celebrating those gifts. As the great C S Lewis once wrote: ‘Now is where Time touches Eternity.’ Let’s make the most of every ‘Now’, all the way through Advent and Christmas.

And now, excuse me – I have a jigsaw to tackle…