Bette Dickinson - Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder

I was on my knees in my in-laws craft room spraying a fresh white claybord with water as it lay flat on the vinyl floor. The June morning sun was streaming in through the tall, narrow windows and glinting off the wet board. My paints and brushes were sprawled out beside me as I prepared the first painting I did for this book.

I soaked the tip of my squirrel-tail brush into the phthalo blue acrylic paint and gently tapped the pool of water on the surface of the board. A thin stream of paint sprawled out like the tributaries of a meandering river, covering the surface in brilliant blue.

I was painting The Annunciation, the cover painting of this book and the pivotal moment when the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and declares she will bear the Messiah. And as I watched the paint drip down the surface of the board, I thought of Marypregnant with Jesus. Suddenly, another thought slipped into my mind. My pulse quickened.

I think I might be pregnant.

The next day I took a test and found that, indeed, I too was with child.

Jesus was conceived in Mary, the idea of this creative work had been conceived in me, and now a real-life human was conceived in my body too.

The three were woven togetherJesus, this creative work, and Winston, my youngestall growing within me and teaching me something about new life and what it means to be a channel for it: to let it gestate within, wait for it to ripen, and then give it birth.

As Winston grew in me, God grew creative ideas for this book and stretched me to make room for them. With every move of Winstons, the Spirit moved within me too, kicking me every now and again to remind me he was there. Sometimes he would toss and turn within me in the middle of the nightwaking me with inspiration.

And so, I would yieldmy flesh, blood, and breath over to him and to what he was shaping in me. In the process, I discovered that I too was growingin the womb of God. Nestled within him in the solitude of my studio or on the page, I was stretching my arms and legs into the vastness of him. I was feeding on his Word and it was shaping my bones and expanding my lungs. I was growing into the words I was writing and becoming more myself in the figures I was painting.

This is what happens when God chooses to dwell with ushe unfolds in us and we unfold in him. And isnt this what the Advent season is all about?

Advent, which means coming, or arrival, is a gestation process. It is a season of allowing Christ to be formed in us as we also are formed in him. And like a pregnancy, it is also a threshold time, a season of transition between what is and what will be.

As participants in Advent then, we stand between the times. We look forward to the second coming of Christ, but we do so as we look in the rearview mirror at the story of his arrival and the story that came before his birth. Because like with any pregnancy, Jesus was born into history. While he came into the world to do something totally new, he was born into something ancient. It is a story with roots.

A NEW SHOOT WITH OLD ROOTS

For generations, Israel had been longing for the salvation of the Messiah. All of history was setting the stage for him. But the stage Jesus entered was lifeless and witheringthe stump of the Jesse tree. This is the metaphor the prophet Isaiah used to describe what the people of Israel had become. The line of the kings of Israel, starting with Jesses son David, had been cut down to its roots.

The people of Israel were meant to be a thriving tree reflecting Gods love to the nations, but they withered when they failed to live into this call. They were not characterized by Gods righteousness and justice. And so, they were taken into exile and endured so much damage that only a stump remained.

But God would not abandon this stump. No, God promises in Isaiah 11:1-4, 10:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD

and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

or decide by what he hears with his ears;

but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth....

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

This painting shows a tree stump against a dark blue, almost black, background. The stump takes up most of the space in this painting. In the tree stump is a hallow, just above the roots at the base, and in the hallow a human fetus--meant to be Jesus--is beginning to grow.

Inspired by this passage, I painted the stump of Jesse as a motif in the lower left corner of each painting in this series. The new shoot that grows in the stump is the infant Christ in the wombthe ultimate sign of Gods faithfulness and new life. God had reclaimed the surviving remnant of Israel and was carrying out his promise to save all nations through Jesus.

This shoot, as it grew, would rule with true justice on behalf of the needy and poor. Jesus would show us what Gods life-giving, fruitful, and expansive kingdom looks likea kingdom that grows and stretches to the nations. A kingdom that takes those on the marginsthe stranger, the widow, and the orphanand brings them into the center of his story. Out of the withering stump of Jesse, Jesus would grow into a fruitful tree that gives life to the world. Because this is just what God does.