Midnight, Christmas Eve
Midnight. Christmas Eve in Atlanta. It’s dropped to the single digits here this weekend, so the faucets are dripping and the sink cabinets are open to let the warm air circulate, so the pipes don’t freeze or burst.
At Advent, and during all spiritual waiting times, sometimes it feels like all we can do during the very long and very cold midnights of the soul is keep the pipes dripping and the cabinets open. It is scary to wonder if our souls are hardening up in the long nights, if we’ve frozen and can’t get thawed.
Some days the waiting can feel so difficult, that it feels like all we have it in us to do is just keep the cabinet doors open.
And pray the Spirit does Her work.
If all we can do is leave the doors open, on Christmas Eve, this holiest of cold, dark waiting nights, it’s enough.
If we are not rolling in to Christmas day as the faithful, joyful, and triumphant, but unfaithful and frustrated and defeated - still leave the doors open, just a crack, just a little bit.
The Spirit can always do a lot more with a little bit than we think.
Just a little bit more. We’re almost to sunrise. We’re almost home.