Under the Roof

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way.” -
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

― Gospel of Mark 1:2-3

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Dear Alex,

An old song, a timeless prayer you’ve called this Sunday morning among golden slippers, smiling angels and poor man’s troubles. For the second time our pastor calls you to pray in this first week of Advent, which marks the fourth Sunday before Christmas. To the podium you come, your knees cropped by frame on video, joints worn out, sole on fire.

There are things ridiculous about your praying in public, your voice of one calling in the wilderness. In the flurry of minutes on mic, you take us to your leaky roof for sightseeing in the rain when many of us would care more about what’s draining in our kitchen sink & sinking from our tower of treasures. For Christmas you wait, watch, work and welcome every year with the lost, orphaned and broken-hearted, the least desired bunch. From the pews offering is passed on as gratuity.

Who remembers the calling in the wilderness when the first and final trekking of the day for millions encircles TikTok and YouTube? The lonesome messenger in camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey, shouting for our repentance, looks ridiculous behind the fluff of Santa Claus and gourmet marshmallows. Neither locust nor camel is uttered in prayer yet our hearts feel hollow and trampled by counterfeit Christmas.

On first Advent Sunday, my teen and most of her friends are returning to their dorms, grand study halls and tunneled staircases. I’ve visited her college campus twice, the first for a tour two Autumns ago and the last round on her first day as freshman this September. The land is a frontier for searching and grooming, endowed with smiling angels and silver wings, roof tiles withstanding weather and debt for over a century and half. I pray for robes, slippers and wings these youngsters cannot find in shop or dream but in a poor man’s troubles they would find themselves with us on our countdown to Christmas.

Yours, 

Kate