My first paid job, during middle and high school, was at the county library. Before Google everyone had questions, and I was proud to help my community find answers to them: When did Alexander go to Egypt? What are protozoans? How do I make apple butter? Nearly every one of our patrons was able to be sated by the knowledge written in our books. There is knowledge, comfort, pleasure in written words.
As it happens, God has given us some particularly amazing writing. God breathed the scriptures, the Bible, into reality so that we can remember and believe. We live in a world whose darkness is so nearly overwhelming, but reading the scriptures we recall goodness. Love. Truth. Joy. God is a prolific writer; the scriptures offer around three-quarters of a million words* to help us understand creation and God's relationship to it - to us. It's both too little and too much and also at the same time just enough. The scriptures are the reply for our every conversation: our opportunity to read and learn, to experience the breath of God on us as we commune. Read, meditate, enjoy! [2 Tim 3:16, Joshua 1:8, John 20:31]
But it’s not only God’s writing that has impacted my Advent. A few months ago my prayer life was... let's generously call it "weak." Challenged by friends and circumstances, I started writing my prayers. The psalmists did it, the prophets, even lesser-known celebrities like John Wesley and the Archbishop of Canterbury, so given my affinity for writing over speech - cf. Proverbs 17:28 - I thought it might be worth a shot. And - I am so glad I did! My written prayers aren't pretty but they are abundant, and when I think about the "wordless groans" of Romans 8:26 I appreciate that the God of infinite understanding can make something out of them. Seeing the history of my petitions shows that I have become so much more consistent than I had ever been before. I heartily recommend writing to God; if it piques your interest grab a keyboard and get tapping!
But there is one more step to great writing. Beyond reading, beyond composition, there is: the edit. You might not have thought a lot about editing as a discipline so indulge me for a moment. Editing has a technical side: grammar, spelling, conformance and so on; that's probably what you did in school. But the more important part of editing, the thing that differentiates a decent editor from a great editor, is the skillful rewrite. An acceptable rewrite improves clarity; a good rewrite reduces word count. A great rewrite does both, cutting out complexity and revealing the core message simply and clearly.
God, considering all eternity, edited it all down to one word. One word, one completely summative Word, that completely encapsulates the 3000 pages of my Bible, 64 million Wikipedia entries, 130 million published books, every word that has ever been written or spoken or grunted or thought. One Word through which everything was made. One Word written on our hearts, one Word given equally to the literate and illiterate, happy and sad, great and weak. One Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. One Word who has brought, is bringing, and will keep on bringing life and light to all humankind. [John 1, 2 Cor 3:3]
This Advent season, we await again the coming of that one, ultimate, completely-sufficient edit, that one Word, Jesus: conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, the light that the darkness cannot overcome. While we wait, let us make the most of every opportunity to read, write, and edit the world around us.
Prayer: Author of creation, thank You for the gift of Your scriptures so we can remember and believe. Thank You for the gift of prayer and meditation, that we can petition as You write our stories into existence. And thank You for that perfect edit, the Word of Your Son who came into the world with light and life. Let us be life-giving to those around us as we await again Your advent.
* Google tells me the NIV, English, Protestant Canon is a bit over 727,000 words, but I have not personally counted them.