Advent Week One: Hope

 

I invite you to light one single candle, a candle of Hope, as you read this meditation.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, And order all things, far and nigh;

To us the path of knowledge show, And cause us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel!

We are waiting.

We are processing that which is uneasy and uncomfortable within us.

We are listening, attuned to the holy hovering and humming around us.

We need wisdom and we need to be prompted in her way to go.  Did you catch that pronoun?  I love that this hymn celebrates the truth in the Hebrew Scriptures how Wisdom is personified as a woman. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom or Sophia, sings at the street corners for us to listen.  In the book of Proverbs, wisdom or Sophia, prepares a nourishing meal and invites us to feast.  In the book of Proverbs, wisdom or Sophia, is the sacred presence of God in our midst.

I know I need wisdom right now.  I know I need to hear God’s soprano/alto voice singing to my soul.  I know I hunger and thirst for God’s sacred meal to feed me beyond the leftover turkey (or leftover wisdom of this world that is rewarmed every day in the microwave of daily news). 

I am wondering, who is a woman in your life who shared wisdom?  A woman whose name might not have been, “Sophia,” but was Sophia to you?

I think of my next-door neighbor, Mary, who would make me cookies and listen to me.

I think of my pastors, Pat and Sue and Linda, who mentored me.

I think of women in our church whose compassion and care help me in ways beyond words.

Now, I want you to call a woman you are thinking about.  Or, if like my next-door neighbor, Mary, from my childhood that isn’t possible, write a letter or say the words out loud to the universe trusting that wherever this woman is…she will hear you.

May this prayer practice be your prayer today.  Amen!