You give us Advent, Lord,

and we are grateful and glad

to abide in your time,

unhurried and urgent,

full life in due season.

You give us Advent, Lord,

and we are grateful and glad

to watch by your light—

revealing and veiling,

old promise in new flesh.

You give us Advent, Lord,

and we are grateful and glad

to ponder your love—

sweet cure and affliction,

hard labor for earth’s joy.

You give us Advent, Lord,

and we are grateful and glad

to receive your hope—

familiar and foreign,

and child-shaped on straw.