Advent

Advent -The Divine breaks into human history.

'The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.'

When we truly see we don't have just sit, we can soar.

I was visiting the Segregation Unit. Seeing every prisoner in 'the block' daily is part of the statutory duties of the Chaplain. I opened the door of the first cell to be greeted enthusiastically, "O I am glad you've come because I want you to help me." He went on to tell me that his concern was not for himself but for a pigeon that was stuck on the exercise yard just outside his cell window. "Its stuck inside a bread bag," he said, "and its been there all night." It seemed odd but I went out to investigate. Sure enough this sad creature had walked into a plastic bread bag eating the crumbs. It had clearly enjoyed a fine meal of bread crumbs and then it must have looked up to discover it was hemmed in and surrounded on every side by the grey walls of its plastic prison! All it had to do was to back out the way it had come in but it lacked the intelligence to work that out. It was an easy thing for me to gently pull the plastic bag away. The bird blinked at me, bewildered. Suddenly realising it was free it spread its wings and flew away.



We stood and watched it soar into the blue enjoying its freedom. The prisoner peering through the bars of his cell was beaming. He was clearly gaining vicarious pleasure from securing the freedom of a fellow creature. "I wish you could do that for me Chaplain," he said. We laughed as we watched the pigeon circle above the yard and then fly over the high prison wall. It was an easy thing for me to remove the bird's blindfold so that it could see to soar.



Advent does that for us. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." When you truly see - sitting can be replaced by soaring!