An In-between Time

A time between two Advents: the first coming of Christ in the Babe of Bethlehem and the second coming of Christ when the New Creation will be all complete; in the-already-and-the-not-yet. This Advent seems to have more of this resonance than usual, especially the 14^th. It would have been Jeff’s 57^th birthday and it was the day before Aaliyah’s second birthday, so she was over to celebrate with us. I think all three of us have particularly been missing Jeff this week in our own ways.

The news yesterday from my medical oncologist was good. I don’t need chemotherapy so can start hormone therapy and radiation. Tonight I took the first pill that I will take every day for five years. It feels like an another already-and-not-yet for me. The happiness over the news has now moved into the reality of long-term treatment. I am mostly confident, but I confess to some tremulousness about the treatment itself and its outcome.

It is especially in a time like this that the almost mournful melody line and words of that great hymn echo in my head and in my soul:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;

ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.

         …the Light of light descendeth…

         …the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.

I stand, we stand, in this holy, tremulous place and time, in between, touched both by the grief of this world and the hope that lies ahead.

Revelation 21:4b-5

“Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”