Advent Introduction - Fighting Back with Beauty

I know that the words in this title don't go together - "Fighting" and "Advent" simply don't really fit. Advent is this season of waiting and preparation for the coming of the Prince of Peace so how does "fighting" fit in? My sermon this morning was focused on Hope (from Jeremiah 33:14-16) and I shared the following story that I read in a book called "God, Improv, and the Art of Living" :

In the days following 9/ 11, writer Sally Schneider and her boyfriend found themselves wandering the deserted and devastated streets of New York and finding a restaurant open. It was an Italian restaurant. The owner, standing at the door, said, “Yes, we’re open,” and welcomed them in. There was something so comforting about the food people shared in that place—as if life were normal somehow. It almost felt defiant. . . . Later, Sally described the experience to a friend—What was it about that meal that made it so significant?—and her friend said, “We fight back with beauty."

We fight back with beauty. Not fighting with weapons of war and violence but beauty, hope, community and love. In November, I focused in my life on doubling down on love. This month in the season of Advent, I am going to focus on beauty. Finding and sharing beauty wherever I see it. Some of it will be pictures, some will be reflections, some might even be something like a poem ((yikes - me writing poetry). But beauty. Beauty that reflects the creator behind it all. Beauty that shows the common humanity within us all. Beauty that speaks to the One who we remember coming into the world during this Advent season.

So, kicking things off is the creativity of my children last night. As we were putting up our "geek tree" (the small basement tree that has all the ornaments that don't go on the big tree upstairs - Star Wars, football, Harry Potter, etc type of ornaments), two of my children were playing with the light strand and we had an idea - let's see what kind of light art we could create. So, here is the beauty sprung by the creativity of my children.