Starting Anew: First Thursday of Advent

In this descent and reascent everyone will recognize a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into some thing hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life reascends. It is the pattern of all animal generation too.
~ C.S. Lewis, Miracles, p148

From the breath of God the first human received life. Humanity flourished and migrated across the globe. But along with this progress comes a darkside: pride, anger, envy, lust and greed. The world became inhabited by a humanity full of God's image and spirit, but corrupted and spewing out deathly vices. Death wasn't the point of creation, life was - so what was God to do next?

Built into the cycle of our existence - including plants, animals, and humans - is that of seeds. A seed is sent out, it is embedded, it dies, and from it comes something beautiful, necessary, and full of life. And also the capacity to reproduce more seeds. Jesus, so to say, is the second breath of God into humanity.

God comes into our world, Jesus being a second seed of sorts - he is embedded into our world. The Incarnation is a story of Jesus literally coming into existence on our planet through a divine seed. A divine seed that develops into a human being just like us, through the womb of peasant girl Mary of Galilee.

The Incarnation of Jesus was eventually followed by the Resurrection. When we let God plant his divine seed of truth and grace in us, we let him make the Resurrection possible for us. When we trust God, we let God breath into us a new kind of life. When we follow the way of Jesus, we let God begin a new kind of Incarnation in us.


A new seed is embedded in us, so that when we die, a new kind of life can emerge. And not only for us, but for all those around us who benefitted from the life God planted within us. The seed God puts in us is intended to result in more seeds in others: more truth, more grace, more trust, more life.

Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.

If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.
~ John 12v24-26 (The Message)

What part of you needs to die?
What ground in your soul needs turned up and prepared for a new kind of seed, a new kind of beginning, a new kind of life?

Let God plant in you the seeds of truth, grace, and trust.
Let the old you die, that the new you may be born this Christmas morn.