Advent - Quiet Days

The Lord your God is among you,
a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will be quiet in his love.
He will delight in you with singing.

- Zephaniah 3.17

Today has not been a quiet day (it doesn't seem that any days have been quiet recently), but I read these words from the Old Testament and they bring me such comfort, especially "He will be quiet in his love", which reminds me that it is good to be quiet. We need the space for the slowing down. I don't need to feel badly when I ache for the quiet solitude my soul needs. God loves us in a quiet way. He loves us in the deepest sense that penetrates all the masks we wear each day and all the facades we put out to the world. He knows us in the silent times when our hearts cry out and when we need the most comfort as our weaknesses overwhelm us. I want the quiet love. The love that knows me, not just grazes by me. I don't want the showy kind of love that seeks to look good to others. I want the love that penetrates to the core of me. That's the love that God gives us.

In this season of Advent, the time before the birth of Jesus, I think it's important to recognize the darkness of the period before the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. What was that like? What does it all mean? We cannot immediately jump to a fulfillment of prophesy without understanding what came before that. 

Before Christmas there was darkness in the world with that slim glimmer of hope as the people waited. Waited for what? What did they expect? What do we expect? It takes some quiet and space to ponder on these things, but this season tends to be the opposite of that. There's no space on our calendars and it seriously lacks quiet. It takes the grand effort of going against the grain of our culture to have some quiet days. I literally need to block off time on my calendar for this. I've already had to say no to a few things. And I know I need to, as in the quiet days my efforts to listen and ponder will help me grow closer to God amidst a very busy time. If anything, I need that more than any other gift I will receive this Christmas. Don't you think we all do?