Advent is the Christian season that signifies waiting for God; waiting for God's kingdom to come. But waiting is too passive a word. Better words are yearning, longing and hoping with hearts aching for something. There is even a touch of frustration in this kind of yearning hope.

A beautiful symbol for Advent is pregnancy, especially the longing of a woman who is close to or even past her due date, and wondering if her baby will ever come. Everyone else is also watching her every minute, waiting for a sign that the birth is imminent; waiting for new life.

As the Body of Christ we could think of ourselves as being pregnant. Through the Holy Spirit we - the whole Body of Christ throughout the world - are made pregnant with the kingdom of God. And in many ways everyone is watching and waiting for a sign that the birth of God's kingdom on earth is imminent.

All of Creation yearned for God's direct intervention the first time, some 2000 years ago, and all of Creation now yearns and waits for the results of that intervention. It is like watching a patch of dirt where seeds are planted; like watching the pregnant woman who is due any day now.

God's kingdom in our midst is a mystery, just like the child within the womb is a mystery, or the seed in the ground is a mystery. We can't see the child in the womb, or the seed in the ground, but we believe the child will be born, and the seed will sprout.

God calls us to trust the work of God taking place in our midst, even when we don't understand and can't see how the mystery will unfold. God has broken into our lives in new and unimaginable ways. We need to be open to the mystery of God, trusting like Joseph that all will come right in the end.

Mary and Joseph offered God the grace of Hospitality. Mary offered God her very flesh as a dwelling place, and because of her trust God becomes not something so very much apart from us, a high and distant transcendence, but part of our human history, part of us, and down to earth.

But something else we see in the Gospel story is that many times it didn't look like things were going very well. In fact having Christ enter their lives didn't bring Mary and Joseph security and comfort, but instead brought struggle. Their early years were full of fear and flight. Christ coming into our lives can often complicate things.

The gift of Jesus is meant to fulfill the longing of humanity and the longing of all Creation. In Christ is the beginning of the fulfillment of all God's promises, the fulfillment of God's plan from the beginning of time.

Jesus reveals what God is like, and shows us God at work in our world, undoing the damage that has been done by human sin. Christ comes bringing peace, healing, reconciliation, acceptance, forgiveness - bringing our salvation and the salvation of the entire world. God continues Christ's work through us. Just like the child is hidden in its mother's womb, Christ is hidden in us. We are pregnant with God.

God is not far away, but is among us as we become part of each in other as in communion. God is, through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit forever Emmanuel, God with us.

Mother Kedda