Category: Marlow, Tanya

for calendar chocolates, promised presents, Santa’s steps.

Advent is a season of longing:

for life, and light, and hope beyond this world.

In Advent, we think we are the ones who are waiting.

But I think of the annunciation,

in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Italian colours:

Mary is surprised, her left hand curled into a question mark,

but it is Gabriel’s head that is bowed low,

The Archangel holding his breath for her answer.

All heaven was waiting on a human word

before the Word would be made human.

Before God became incarnate,

God waited for human assent.

***

God was in the waiting,

the liminal moment when heaven held its breath.

I wonder about the waiting;

As my body groans and yearns for an eternal home,

the pulling of my soul towards heaven;

Could it be that God is waiting for my words—

Could it be that God’s soul is pulling too?