This morning as I started to wake I realized that if I got out of bed just then I could make it for the sunrise. These brilliant later morning sunrises are amazing these days when the frost is still all over the ground and hardly anyone else is out except for other dog walkers starting out their days and a few joggers who brave the cold with extra layers.

I got ready and stuck on Christmas socks and got the dogs out the door just in time…

The path seemed stratified with the sky as the pups and I walked towards the pinks and oranges of a new morning. These days the sunrise is listed as 8: 14am on my weather app and the sunset is 3:51pm. We have one more day until the longest night and then we start to regain light again. I am ready for more light time. It feels as though the sun is just up when it immediately starts to go down again. We walked along for our usual morning route and then headed inside to get warm and coffee for the human.

I settled in with coffee and my writing before me and the pups settled in around.

Luna is under the blanket and Push is right next to me. I lit a candle to center myself and think about Sunday morning, Advent 4, the Sunday of love. I turned on the Christmas tree because we just can’t get enough light these days and the Christmas tree makes all the difference. From my warm dog pile, I wrote the devotional this morning about Gabriel appearing to Mary. What was each character thinking? feeling? saying? All of this is leading up to the next days when God will appear in flesh in the form of the unexpected, the vulnerable, the human, the story, the narrative, the Word. Today we celebrate all of that that is coming to be as well as thinking toward what it means to love in this unprecedented world. What will it mean to love on our people when we are so far away and isolated from each other this holiday? What will it mean to set up our own rituals and celebrations during a weird time?

Advent keeps us waiting but it isn’t passive, it is full. This morning is full of potential of light and love and all that will be.

How was your morning this Advent 4?