“While shepherds watched their flocks by nightAll seated on the ground.

The angel of the Lord came down,

And glory shone around, 

and glory shone around.”~Nahum Tate, 1700

Watch. Advent is meant to be a time of watching. Watching for how light and darkness dance together….how one seems to be leading and the other following. Watching for the ways in which darkness can bring much if we are open to its wisdom, its presence. Watching how our hearts are bent one way or another by encounters with our fellow travelers on this path.

With regularity I indulge in some watching. I sit at Amore, a coffee shop in our neighborhood, that sits at the corner of two roads converging. I hold a cup of excellent coffee between my hands and I watch as the story of our neighborhood plays out. I see cars go by too fast and those that amble along in an almost contemplative fashion. I watch as young people, heavy with sleeplessness and over-stuffed backpacks wait for the bus that will take them to a place of joy or pain, depending on their connections or friendships or alienation. I watch the antique store across the street with its changing window display and the blinking of the Summit beer sign in the window of the local restaurant. I watch familiar faces come through the door and those I have never seen also enter looking furtively around deciding if this is a ‘good’ place or not.

A lot can be learned from watching which is different than looking I’ve decided. Watching implies intention. It implies that the watcher expects to see something important, something that might capture the imagination or offer a surprise or transforming moment. It also implies a spirit of guarding the moment, of watching over in a air of protection…..watching over our children, over our four-legged companions, over our vulnerable ones.

This is what the shepherds were doing in the Christmas story we are walking toward. They were watching over those in their care. I imagine that a shepherd’s skill of watching is pretty honed. Perhaps their ability to watch…to look with intention…keeps them open to being awake to other experiences, other sights that come their way. Wolves, for instance, who might attack a flock. Storms. Stars. Unusual stars. Really bright stars.

The watching that the shepherds did led them to an encounter with the Holy we are told in the story. It was an encounter in which ‘glory shone all around’. I don’t know about you but I am in need of some ‘glory all around’ moments. The words and the news of this particular Advent are weighing on my heart and spirit. I could really go for a few ‘glory all around’ experiences.

This morning I received an email from the receptionist at the church where I am blessed to serve. She was passing on a story of something that had just happened to her. A young man who had been riding his bike near the church had found $57.00 on the ground. Maybe he had been watching well. He came in and gave it to her saying he thought the ‘ church would find a good way to use that money.’ And he left. She passed on the story to all of us so we could bask in its sweetness, so we could reap some of the reward of his watching. And I now pass it on to you. 

Watching. I think Advent, particularly this Advent, is asking us to ‘watch’ and to do it well and with intention. We are being asked to watch for the places where goodness and kindness and hope break into our world. We are being asked to be vigilant in this watching. And when in our watching we see the in-breaking of God, we will know that glory is indeed shining all around.

And when it happens…we would do well to tell about it.