Our advent theme is “Remembering Advent: Hope Through the Eyes of a Child”. The following poem was written by Rev. Masyn Evans-Clements, and read during the Worship on the first Sunday of Advent on December 1, 2024.
Children are our past.
Each of us came from somewhere, from someone.
We bring with us the messages of our childhood.
The validation, pride, confidence, and love.
The abuse, manipulation, cynicism, insecurity.
This sets our expectations for the future; for what is possible.
Our childhood wounds and boons bleed into our adulthood.
We don’t know we’ve left our childhood until we miss it.
Don’t appreciate living feral until we are held captive
by the social norms we never bothered with before.
Don’t understand until we do.
Children are our present.
They are the big round eyes which meet us unexpectedly at 11:30pm, 2am, and 5am.
Eyes that fill with tears when they’re scared or shy.
Eyes that fill with elation at any number of ordinary things,
like going outside or sitting down to eat.
Eyes that see the world not as it is but as it should be; eyes that are filled with hope.
Because hope is very simple to children; it teaches them to expect.
Just as the moon expects to bring in the tide and steal it away again,
A child expects everyone to be treated fairly.
Just as the waves expect to touch sand when they reach for the shore,
A child expects emotional support and love from a parent.
Children are our future.
Small things tend to get big when it comes to people.
And I hope their expectations stay the same.
That their expectations are not swayed;
That when adults tell them their hopes for the future are too big and unattainable,
it remains simple for them.
And in that way, children are our hope for the future.
Perhaps where we have failed, they might succeed if we can give them the tools they need now.
Perhaps where we have ignored problems, they might confront them.
Perhaps where we have made it complex, they can keep it simple.
Children are our past, our present, our future.
Where we came from, where we are, and where we’re going.
May we see like them. May we be like them.
