Wonder to the Christian community is as powerful as gratitude. Both have the ability to transport a person from hopelessness to hopefulness. Wonder is the acceptance of God’s mystery beyond the reality of the known world. Where the known world can be defeating, wonder can give us one more round. And while wonder is usually associated with grandeur, I believe that wonder is found just as much in simplicity.
Simplicity during the Advent can often be missed because so much of this season is filled with overwhelming sensations. Whether it’s a long awaited home-cooked meal, the millions of lights on an old landmark, or the most expensive gifts we could put under the tree, the Advent season is filled with the overwhelming. Our bank accounts are indeed witnesses to this.
The most beautiful and marvelous moments of my Advent experiences were on the staircase of our one bedroom, 300 square foot apartment where I crammed in with my mother, grandmother, and aunty. The space was small, yet it housed all of my mother’s immediate family and my cousins during the holidays.
And when all the games were won and the food devoured, my cousins all took a place on the stairwell. Slowly, my cousin unlatched the case that housed his ‘ukulele. Lifting it to his chest, he placed his fingers to the fretboard and strummed.
The first rift, immediately recognizable to my family, brought a smile to each of our faces. And without hesitation, each member of my family went into their parts. Singing along to the island songs written about love, laughter, and island life.
They were not Christmas songs or Advent hymns. Nonetheless, they were treated with absolute reverence. Because each song spoke to the simple life on the islands that made us grateful to live in Hawai’i and among family.
Jesus’ birth, as a messianic fulfillment, is a cosmic marvel. To the strand of eternity, this Advent of God is a monumental moment. Yet, the grandeur of God’s coming is interwoven with the simplest of elements. A trough in the animal storehouse of a random inn. A woman and her husband traveling alongside the many other travelers. A town that’s as “small town” as they come.
Jesus’ birth, while filled with such wonder, was also simple. Its quaint elements give it so much more meaning than the harmonizing angels and the brightly burning star. This is God in the dazzling lights and the dirt. This dichotomy is a proto-narrative and even proto-testament to the embedded God of mystery and reality that we see in the gospels. These are the parts of the gospels where Jesus is wholly other and fully known. Mystery and Reality. Because Jesus is overwhelmingly marvelous and humbly simple.
Each year, my family still gathers at my cousin’s house. And each year, the ‘ukulele case is unlatched and the instruments are tossed around. The further and longer I am removed from my birth sands, the more these moments become wonderful to me. And I am grateful to the Advent season, because when it comes, the Advent calls me to return to these moments full of wonder and simplicity recalling the undecorated mystery of the Christ.
May the Advent remind us once more to leave room for the overwhelming mystery of God found in the simplest of experiences and gifts.
Pono Lopez is the Associate Chaplain of La Sierra University and has two daughters, Jemma and Evie, with his amazing wife, Caiti.