Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation,
that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a
mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 212)
“I’m with you on that,” my husband responds.
A mansion? How have I not heard or heeded those words before? I have lived with the Advent collects for most of my life and we pray them at our dinner table during this season. But now I am caught up short. I have certainly thought about (and even written and preached about) making room in our hearts for Jesus. But clearly my imagination was too small. I hardly envisioned a great expanse of space, beautiful and elegant, clean and carefully tended, exquisitely appointed.
I carry the image with me into the evening somewhat dazed by the revelation. A mansion? But then, what was I thinking? That Jesus would be content dwelling in a nice cozy corner of my heart?
The Savior of the World will need a much bigger space.
And there it is. I hear anew the Word who has been speaking love into my core from the beginning. My heart breaks open, exposing a widening landscape allowing for the possibility of more of God than I had ever imagined.
Copyright Anne E. Kitch 2014
