Gracious is י ה ו ה and righteous;
our God is full of compassion
Psalm 116:4

I look at the screen of my phone and feel annoyed. The software updated again and now everything looks different. As someone who is very visually oriented, this poses a challenge. I recognize my apps by what they look like as well as where they are on the screen. It’s as if the landscape has shifted around my when I wasn’t looking and now I don’t know where I am.

To be oriented is to face the rising of the sun, to know which direction is east and thus the other directions as well; it is also facing into light and life.

In my daily life, the landscape often shifts (ok, all the time) and I can easily become disoriented, losing sight of what is life-giving, what is joyful, what is loving. Then my vision of God’s grace becomes small.

The remedy is to turn to the light, to remember where true life is found, and in the Advent landscape to set my face toward the birth of Love itself.