A Startling Advent

Barbara Crooker wrote a poem that begins “Sometimes, I am startled out of myself.” Generally we are such prisoners of our own thoughts and perspectives that to be startled out of ourselves is a real and marvelous awakening. Perhaps, then, during Advent—that time when we seek to become awake—we should allow ourselves to be startled with increasing frequency!

The doorway to startledom is wonder, which is always available to us because God’s wonders are endless. As the writer of psalm 40 proclaimed:

How many are the wonders and designs

that you have worked for us, O Lord my God;

you have no equal.

Should I wish to proclaim or speak of them,

they would be more than I can tell!

The Irish poet William Butler Yeats noted, “The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” Magical things, startling things, await us when we slow down enough to observe and explore the creativity of our natural world. Just learning about the marvels of trees, or insects, or galaxies, would take a lifetime and provide endless opportunities to be startled and thus awakened.

It seems appropriate that the word “startled” begins with “star,” for when something surprises us, we often are enlightened. Ironically, in the Northern hemisphere we experience longer periods of darkness during Advent as we approach the winter solstice. However, it is in darkness that the light of far-away stars is most visible to us. Thus, this Advent, may we pray: Come, O God whose light becomes manifest in the darkness—startle us into awakening to your wonders!