Advent Devotional by Alena Vaughn

Luke 3:7-18

Then John answered, “Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.” (Luke 3:11)

Each year on Christmas Eve my family gathers around the tree. The room is dark other than the twinkling of the Christmas lights. Everyone holds a glass of sparkling grape juice. The oldest and youngest readers sit closest to the reading light. A mound of books, all with worn edges, sit awaiting my family’s only holiday tradition. On this night, we huddle close and listen patiently as the youngest reader stumbles through Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth and the family matriarch reads of Isaiah’s anticipation. Then just before all scurry off to bed, my mother will open our copy of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and read from the same pages her family has read from every year for generations. To us, this is a sacred moment—everyone is together, arguing has ceased, and hope burns bright within each of us.

Growing up I idealized this moment. My family is large and loud, with such diverse personalities so when Christmas Eve came I wanted this moment to be intimately sacred. Yet, every year my parents or my siblings would hear of an individual or young family alone on Christmas and extend an invite. My selfishness believed sacredness equaled perfection, that the “ideal” Christmas Eve must exclude others; yet, my memories remind me otherwise—my Christmas memories are robust with faces of many I do not know well, but that felt loved because they were invited to the intimate spaces of my family’s Christmas Eve traditions.

I wonder what it looks like to take John’s words a step farther and do more than just briefly offer glimpses of righteous living. To hear instead the plea for humankind to be hospitable, equitable, nurturing, and humble in our actions. For humanity to pass from generation to generation the tradition of belonging . . . for that is sacred.

Alene Vaughn