Preparation

Preparation.  That's the word for this week in my online Advent retreat. In the season of Advent we prepare for the coming of the Christ-child, God incarnate among us. We also prepare for the celebration of the season, decorating our houses and our trees, putting presents under the tree.

Last Saturday, a group of six band students spent four hours in helping prepare our yard for the winter. In addition to raking out the leaves, they trimmed back the day lilies and the irises, the butterfly bush, the burning bush and the miscanthus (ornamental grasses). The year's growth has been spent, and now the plants need to lay dormant for the winter so that they can prepare for next year's growth.

Earlier in the year, I spent a lot of time in a different kind of preparation. At times, I prepared for what lay ahead by making sure that our legal papers were in order, that the forms for Jeff's disability leave were completed, that materials got back and forth to his school. I prepared by making sure that the appropriate pain medicines were on hand. I made plans for the services to celebrate his life and resurrection. And I tried to gently prepare the boys and Jeff's family.

All the while, Jeff was preparing as well. While my preparations involved more action in the world, Jeff's took him further and further within himself. He would rouse himself from this inward journey every now and then with instructions for the boys and for me--things that he wanted to make sure we remembered. As time went on, those arousals were fewer and further between. The last coherent words that Jeff spoke on Saturday in the hospice center were a question: did the dog get fed?

In a sense, Jeff's preparations were like the work in our yard. His outer growth had been spent, and now he was getting ready for the dormancy of winter in order to wake to a Spring of new growth.

Preparation for the coming of the God who is born among us.