Gently, relentlessly as fine dew, the Divine soaks into a wanting humanity.

We work our way toward Christmas. With quiet excitement, we go about those simple gestures that ratify the mystery about to take place. We help ourselves to see again, in the outward sign, the inner truth. If we are awake and if we live the earthly process, we will feel what is inner and hidden. We make the wreath and light the candles, and we gain from them courage to stop the wheeling and dealing of our outer life: to sacrifice the wheels that grind away in our heads, the endless rationalizations…the wheels that grind away at outward “progress” at the cost of peace and justice in this world…the wheels that dial and roll and spin and whirl and drive us to distraction. The sacrificed wheel of the Advent wreath encourages us to stop and wait.

—Gertrud Mueller Nelson