Advent is about the Goodness of Divine Interruptions
The entire story of Advent is a story of interruptions.
The angel Gabriel interrupts Mary’s teenage years in order to announce to her the interruption of her life’s plans.
Gabriel interrupts Joseph’s sleepy dreams in order to assure him of God’s salvific dream for the whole world.
The sleepy town of Bethlehem is interrupted from its marginal status in Israel’s life in order to become the town that welcomes Israel’s Messiah.
The Christ Child’s night is interrupted by the arrival of Magi who gift him with symbols of his auspicious vocation.
The Magi have their planned route home interrupted by a divine warning against Herod’s treacherous ways.
Mary and Joseph’s plans for a quiet life are interrupted by an angelic directive to flee south to Egypt.
The innocent bystanders to the Holy Family’s drama are interrupted by the Massacre of the Innocents.
Elizabeth and Zechariah’s retirement plan is interrupted by the surprise arrival of a baby boy.
That boy’s childhood is interrupted by the death of his aged parents and by his relocation to the desert.
Nothing, in short, goes according to their life’s plan for the protagonists of Matthew and Luke. Nothing. That’s, in fact, the good news of Advent.
God shows up in the interruptions of life. It’s how he still does things. He interrupts our preconceived ideas of life and work and relationship in order to accomplish his good purposes in us. It simply requires eyes to see and hearts to welcome.
This is how Ron Rolheiser puts the point in his essay, “Life’s Interruptions,” in Daybreaks: Reflections for Advent and Christmas:
“We, too, must look for the hand of God in our interruptions. These often appear as a conspiracy of accidents but through them God guides and tutors us. If we were totally in control of our own agendas, if we could simply plan and execute our lives according to our own dreams with no unwanted demands I fear that many of us would slowly and subtly become selfish.
C. S. Lewis once said that we’ll spend most of eternity thanking God for those prayers he didn’t answer. I suspect we’ll also spend a good part of eternity thanking God for those interruptions that derailed our plans.”
May we, like the actors in God’s divine nativity drama, have eyes to see and hearts to welcome his interrupting work in our lives. May we trust that he wills our deepest good in these interruptions. May we be blessed in our trust in him.
(The Advent prayer below is from my book, Prayers for the Pilgrimage (IVP, 2024).
