By Andrea Lingle

I love Advent. I am a Christmas Eve girl to my toes. Everything remains to be determined. On Christmas Eve, there is still something to look forward to. You will be there soon, for sure, but you aren’t there yet. There is something terrifying about “there.” What if, when you get there, it doesn’t answer the longing you have for arrival? I have learned to place very little value in the thing itself and be enchanted by the journey. 

However, Epiphany is the arrival point. It is the culmination of the celebration of Christmastide, and I wonder if it would be fruitful to reckon with the arrival point this year. Before we plunge into the new workout routines, productivity apps, and juice cleanses, let’s pause and ponder the question we have been asking throughout Advent: Who do you say that I am? Peter gave us an answer—the Christ of God. John gave us an answer—the Word made flesh. And, in a lonely desert, God gave Moses an answer—I AM. The one who is. Being itself. We have journeyed for weeks to this Epiphanal point, and what we have come to is the Christ, the Word, spoken by Being itself. 

How does one deal with the immensity of this answer, this destination? Surely not by speaking. Surely this is a moment for wonder. So, I leave you with an image and an injunction. Set a timer for five minutes, sit with this image (or another that leads you to curiosity) and let the work of Advent take root in you. 

Perhaps, if you are willing, you will even ask the asker: Christ, incarnate Word, who do you say that I am?