In the second week of Advent we light the Bethlehem (or prep-aration) candle to get ourselves ready for Christmas. Aubrey's paradigm for preparedness comes from watching his mom do prenatals on pregnant women. But this year we also talked about the preparations we made to take cookies and other snacks up to the Gunderson's house as a Sta. Lucia tradition.

John the Baptist was a prophet who ministered before Jesus' time. His message was, 'Repent because the messiah is coming.' People streamed out into the dessert to be baptised by him as a symbol of the forgiveness they saught. As is often the case for me, the forgiveness I need to seek is for words and actions of unkindness (especially toward Deborah) in the arange-ments of everyday matters.

Here's a great image of peace and reconcilliation.