We read the story of Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, and wonder if one can ever really be ready for the upending terror that seems to accompany glimpses of glory. A young unmarried woman glimpses glory and finds herself pregnant with the world's salvation. A young carpenter discovers his fiancee is pregnant with a child that is not his own, glimpses glory and dedicates his life to laying a foundation upon which the hope of the world can be raised. Simple shepherds snoozing in a field at night glimpse glory and become heralds of a changing world order. No one's life ever seems to be the same after a glory glimpse.
Life swells in barren spaces.
Light illumines rooms of darkness. That which has been shoved to the back and disguised by cobwebs and clutter makes its way to the fore. Old orders are reversed, lifted up and brought low. The whole world changes with one glory glimpse. In this season of Advent may we be ready for a glory glimpse.