The season is about now and the future at once.
The Advent Season offers us a two-for-one. While we are most aware of the preparatory character of Advent, we may be less aware of the being character of the season.
As we live in a culture that prepares for Christmas with a fervor that clearly rivals our preparing for Christ, we get the idea of working ahead to get all things in order. We aren’t strangers to preparing for the long-expected celebration.
This activity is, however, not purely about then. That time in the future. It’s also about the now. Who we are.
The stories we hear in Advent guide us toward a now that prepares us for a then. This matches a view of God’s Kin-dom that exists as both a now and not-yet: at the same time. Living fully in the now. And that loving generously here, like it’s the Kin-dom, is essential. Because it, too, is the Kin-dom.