Advent: Love

At the center of our lives is relationship, and at the center of relationship is love. As Advent draws to a close and we celebrate Jesus's birth, it is important to remember that the Nativity scene is a story about the Father's love for us: a fierce commitment which came at the greatest of costs and showed the greatest of vulnerabilities. Likewise, our love for God, as well as our love for others, requires both the tenacity of sacrifice and the courage to bare ourselves open to the possibility of rejection and suffering. Love cannot be earned from a display of power and dominance; rather, it is when we make sacrifices and show our own weakness and frailty, that the glory of God shines the brightest through us.