Advent Devotional, Week 2

Adapted from Every Moment Holy 2022 Advent Journal. Copyright 2017 Douglas McKelvey.

Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

A Liturgy for Missing Someone

I willingly carry this ache.
I carry it, O Father, to you.

You created my heart for unbroken fellowship.
Yet the constraints of time and place, and the
stuttering rhythms of life in a fallen world
dictate that all fellowships in these days
will at times be broken or incomplete.

And so we find ourselves in this season,
bearing the sorrow of my separation from _____________.
[Speak the name of the absent person here, or speak the name of Jesus.]

I acknowledge, O Lord, that it is
a right and a good thing to miss deeply
those whom we love but with whom
we cannot be physically present.
Grant me, therefore, courage to love well
even in this time of absence.

Grant me courage to shrink neither from
the aches nor from the joys that love brings,
for each, willingly received, will accomplish
the good works you have appointed them to do.
Therefore I praise you even for my sadness,
knowing that the sorrows I steward in
this life will in time be redeemed.

Use even this sadness to carve out spaces
in our souls where still greater repositories
of holy affection might be held, unto the
end that we might better love, in times of
absence and in times of presence alike.
We now entrust all to your keeping.
May our reunion be joyous, whether in this life
or in the life to come.
How I look forward, O Lord, to the day
when all our fellowships will be restored,
eternal and unbroken.

O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Christ our King, how I long for your return.
O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Christ our Shepherd,
how I pine for your voice.
O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Christ our older brother, how I miss you.
Make haste, O Lord. Return to us!
Amen.

RESPOND

Holidays often remind us of grief and the loss of those who cannot celebrate with us. But we have faith that God will reunite us again. Reflect on the losses you are grieving this week, and share with God what you miss in their absence.

Optional: Use a journal to respond by writing your own prayer.