December 19 is both my baptismal and ordination anniversary, albeit 18 years apart. When people ask me how on earth I become a Lutheran pastor, I never quite know what to say. “Your guess is as good as mine,” I once said to a smiling and kindly man who asked in all earnestness.
I suppose I could ask him to pull up a chair while I relayed the scattered story of my life. How I hoped for and expected God to act in my life, and then was utterly shocked when God did act and continues to. I suppose when we see God’s movement in the lives of people around us, in ways of healing, of justice, of accompaniment, of new and unimaginable life where we expected death, we might be more bewildered than we are comforted that this is how God acts in the world.
In Advent, the prophet Micah calls us to see God’s faithfulness in surprising ways, in places where we least expect. The oracle of Micah is a reminder that the promise of God’s covenant is certain, yet the ways in which God’s promises are fulfilled are not always predictable.
God of peace, you come into our lives as we yearn and hope for you. Bring your promises to fulfillment as we await the unimaginable. Amen. —