Advent ...

... begins today.

The instant onset of Christmas season right after Halloween always makes me a little itchy. Especially so Thanksgiving weekend with the full-on commercialism. It makes me want to hide. It's not just that I'm not ready to jump into festive holiday mode. Or even disgust over the tragic stories about chaos at Walmart stores and elsewhere that took me back to the Cabbage Patch Doll riots in the early 1908s. How is that even possible?

Oh, I do love twinkly lights and special traditions and glad tidings of good cheer and surprises wrapped up in shiny paper  and tied with a bow ... all the expressions of joy of the season.

For most of my life, I had only a passing awareness of Advent. Even after joining a church about 15 years ago, I would only realize it was Advent sort of right in the middle of the season as we were stampeding along to Christmas Day. Then a few years ago, I participated in an Advent study called The Uncluttered Heart by Beth Richardson. Thanks to that study - and the e-nudges I continue to get from the author (I subscribed to her site and get periodic updates through the year), I've tried to be more intentional about this season of anticipation. Even so, I almost missed the announcement of another study - and I did miss the first week. But I picked up the book today for a study that continues through the next four Thursdays: "Call Him God's Son" by Alex Joyner. It's based on the Revised Common Lectionary, which, quite honestly, doesn't sound that riveting. However, as I was reading the first chapter, I discovered that Rev. Joyner serves a church on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, which gave me a chill. Why? It is a rather remote, rural area that happens to be only about an hour from my Aunt Linda's home -- one of my favorite places on Earth.

That simply cannot be mere coincidence.