18 Dec Look Everywhere
Posted at 10:39h
in Advent 2019
The theme this Advent week is “Look Everywhere” which immediately made me think of a story from the first days of our marriage. The wedding ring Sarah wears is a modest but very old diamond that originally belonged to my great, great grandmother. As the oldest grandchild on my mother’s side it was passed down to me with strict instructions only to offer it to a potential spouse if I was totally positive about their promise as a life-long mate. That, or be willing to awkwardly – but firmly – ask for it back if things soured.
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When Sarah and I were first married, we lived in married housing on the campus of Southern Nazarene University in the tiniest of tiny one bedroom apartments. On one fateful day we had been in the campus darkroom developing photos. Out of concern for Sarah’s ring touching the developing chemicals, I had put it in my pocket for safe keeping. Hours later, back in our apartment, she asked for the ring back and when I reached into my pocket, it was gone.
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I recall the remainder of that day being a mix of total panic, sadness, tears, and searching. And when I say “searching” I mean we truly looked EVERYWHERE. While other students brushed by on their way to class, we crawled on our hands and knees through the grass outside the commons. Like treasure hunting archeologists, we made a grid to nit-pick the turf blade by blade, but to no avail. When it grew too dark to look any longer, we trudged home while I rehearsed what I would tell my devastated mother.
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That night, succumbing to the stress and frustration, Sarah and I got into an argument, during which I flopped down onto our futon in exasperation. Said futon was directly across from our stove because the living room and kitchen were essentially the same room. (Come
to think of it, the living room and kitchen and dining room and office and library and foyer were all the same room). Anyhow, the futon was just low enough, and my defeated posture just bad enough, that I could see under the stove to where the diamond engagement ring had apparently rolled when I pulled my keys out of my pocket hours earlier. Until that moment, even in that small apartment, we had not quite looked “everywhere.”
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The phrase “Look Everywhere” implies a sense of urgency because the object of your search is of great value. It also implies that what you’re looking for could be found _anywhere_. It is such a lovely idea in the midst of this Christmas season, especially as it relates to Mary’s proclamation in Luke chapter 1:47-55.
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Clearly Mary understood her place within the social structure of her time and what it meant for a person of her stature to be chosen as the vehicle for divine revelation. She knew – as a country girl from the armpit of nowhere who was pregnant out of wedlock – that most would call her worthless. But she also understood that she had been found… a precious ring lost in a tiny apartment, in a dark corner, under an old stove and then raised up to bear God. Who Mary was, and the fact that God chose her, is part of God’s revelation to us; a hidden truth – precious and so easily missed – Mary is the vessel of the Divine.
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Christmas seems to be ubiquitous today; seen on every lamppost banner, heard playing on every radio station, and tasted in every peppermint-y latte. But it is also not in any of those places. The event of Christ is tiny and easily missed. To find this precious self-revelation of who God is, we have to look everywhere, combing through the noise of the holiday like blades of grass hiding a ring. Look everywhere, because you might find this divine truth anywhere.
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