O Come. O Come Emmanuel.

The third Sunday of Advent has past. Christmas Eve awaits.

Anticipation hangs in the air, glittering with the shimmer of a thousand candles glowing in the night. And still we move further into the darkness. This season of ice, where cold has seized the birds’ wings. Where news of The Christchild’s coming rings forth across the land. Where yearning for the sun’s return rings in every heart.

I wait in expectation of the holy of holy nights when hope shall spring forth in a world of peace, hope, joy and Love.

And still, my heart is heavy. Our world so sorely in need of peace continues to gravitate towards pain, war,
suffering, killing. Our world so desperately in need of quiet rages in the agony of death.

And still I wait.

O Come! O Come! Emmanuel.

O Come! Bring forth peace, hope, love and joy.
Bring it on oh holy one. Bring it on.

I am ready. I am willing. I am open to peace, hope, love and joy.

And still I wait.

Frustration rises. Fear edges into my awakening.

Can we not see? Can we not know that we are killing one another with our guns and ammunition. Our
insistence that we are right, they are wrong. Our fighting for ground. For religious beliefs and social
acceptance.

Can we not see?

O Come! O Come! Emmanuel

And I am reminded. Peace begins with me. I cannot make peace when I hold onto anger, fear, frustration. I
cannot be peace when I make war against the world around me.

O Come O Come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Oh Israel. To thee shall come Emmanuel

I remember as a child my mother humming this song. Her sweet clear voice echoing in the dark. I loved to
hear her sing. Loved to hear her voice.

And I breathe.

And hear the invitation to deepen my understanding of this season and its promise of peace, hope, love
and joy.

I breathe and feel its truth calling to my heart, this universal truth that speaks of our humanity — we are
born in the reflection of God, Yahweh, Allah. We embody God’s greatness, him or her or it – it doesn’t
matter what word we use for God. She does not listen to our words. Hhe hears our hearts. It sees our
truth.

We are limitless in our possibilities. We are magnificent. We are holy. We are divine.

This is not ‘God’ as limited by our language, but rather a concept of God that is unlimited through a
broadening of our vocabulary — The Divine. Creator. Yaweh. Almighty Father. The Divine Mother. King of Kings. Spirit. Lord. Allah. Buddha. Brahma. Divine Mystery.

So many names and yet, always the same message — to come home to Love. To be loving. To allow Love to be our answer in all things, all ways, all beings.

In this time of waiting, in this time of darkness I let go of the words I know and step into that place where I
broaden my ‘God vocabulary’. That place where I lean beyond the secular of my language to the Divine
presence embodied in the collective will of woman/man, a spirit that embraces me in wonder as I stand in Love.

In love, I breathe into my divine essence and come home to my heart.

In love, I come home to the One.

In love, I hear the Divine calling of my name as I embrace the beauty and the wonder of my human condition, this condition I share with each of you for we are each are the Divine Expression of Amazing Grace, no matter the names we use to call God, Creator, Yaweh, Allah and so many more.

And I wonder, I call God many things. What does God call me?

Child. Friend. Believer. One. What does God call me?

Perhaps the answer is… Home.

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