In these 12 days of Christmastide, we are not primarily celebrating how Jesus came our what he would do to save us, but simply that God came.

Will stress be part of the picture over the next few weeks, even in our most anticipated moments and dearest traditions? Oh, for sure. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. I can also let it be fun.

Christ’s first and second comings enable a “third advent:” the many ways that we see Christ drawing near in the present, in the already-but-not-yet, ushering in his Kingdom and bringing light and life, often not in flashy ways, but rather coming to us, as Paula D’Arcy says, “disguised as our life.”