It may seem strange to pair Advent with resurrection. Usually resurrection comes more naturally at Easter. But at heart the labor pangs of all creation giving birth to the Christ child are a longing for a new start.

Advent is a longing to be born again.

Neuroscience now teaches that every minute is pregnant with almost unlimited possibility: one neuron (or brain cell) can have an average of twenty thousand synapses (connections between neurons that allow them to communicate); add to this some 30 different neurotransmitters each encoding a different message; and these combinations give rise to a breathless array of potential human interactions, experiences and behaviors; each of which in turn can affect other people and entire communities…

Ferguson.

Syria.

Church.

Home.

This jaded soul of mine.

No real resurrection will end with our own self, as the protagonist Neklyudov in Tolstoy’s Resurrection reminds me. Neklyudov finds spiritual and moral regeneration when he makes amends to a woman he has deeply wronged. This movement in turn sets off a whole chain of human interactions that place Neklyudov in an entirely different mode of relating to his world.

Just one genuine resurrection can mean a world of difference in our delicate ecosystem of sin and grace.