Celebrating the beginning of Advent. The story of Christmas begins in the creation stories of Genesis and the Psalms. John certainly recognizes this at the beginning of his Gospel. And to me the proper response to the creation story is thanksgiving. Because what God created was good. It is fitting that this year marks the first of a five-year cycle when the beginning of Advent coincides with the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States (after two years when it has not). Let us prepare our hearts for the Incarnation by meditating on all for which we owe God our Creator.
Gracious God: We give you thanks and praise this morning on a new week and a new liturgical year. We thank you for the beauty of all of your creation and the way in which it sustains and supports us. We thank you for the promise of light after the darkness and the promise of spring after the winter. And most of all we thank you for the redemption of your creation through the presence and resurrection of the Anointed. So be it.
