Well, I didn’t quite manage to get this up yesterday (just as I didn’t quite manage to make my advent wreath until the day after the first Sunday, and we aren’t quite managing to burn down our daily advent candle every day!), but shaking off some of that nasty perfectionism means doing the things I want to do late rather than not at all! So here is another prayer/poem I wrote a few years back after spending time with the story of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke ch. 1.

Again, this season carries within it such beautiful ways of helping us to wait for what we long for, and I can envision no better picture of what true waiting entails than pregnancy…

We wait with Mary for Christ to be formed in us,

Daring to trust this hidden womb-weaving,

And treasuring the smallest signs of growth.

As Mary took heart to see

the wondrous swelling of Elizabeth’s belly,

So the burgeoning life of God we see in others

encourages us that this sacred life grows also in us.

More and more, we long to bring Christ into the world,

Though we know that pain and labour accompany the birth of new life

As surely as joy and wonder.

Groaning and waiting,

Pregnant with hope and desire,

We prepare today a place for your coming,

Son of Mary’s womb, and Christ of our own hearts.

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