But when all those elements are stirred together for a day or so, the mixture becomes unstable. On the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, the whole thing just explodes. There's no ball dropping in Times Square, no flying champagne corks, and no screaming crowds. No, this morning we get something far more dramatic. No one knows when this will happen.
Advent is the season of expectant unknowing.
Many people like to think of Advent as a very penitential season, and that can play a part in Advent. An attitude of expectant unknowing doesn't just happen to us, we cultivate it. The posture I have during parts of Advent is like standing at the top of the stairs with my siblings on Christmas morning. I had the same feeling, two and a half years ago, waiting at the front of the church for my wife to come around the corner in her wedding gown. Certainly Jesus didn't mean for us to never sleep or to always physically have one eye cast towards the clouds.