There is something about the arrival of September that makes us suddenly realise that the year is moving on. Perhaps it is the changing light, the cooler evenings, or the first leaves beginning to fall. The “-ber” months seem to gather momentum as we move through September, October, November and December, and before we know it Christmas is upon us.

For the church too, these months have their own rhythm. We have celebrated Harvest, giving thanks for the food we receive, for the land and for all those whose work enables us to eat and flourish. Harvest reminds us that, however independent we may feel our lives are built on gifts we did not create for ourselves. Gratitude is a good place from which to begin.

But then the mood changes. As the year grows darker, we come to Remembrance. We pause to remember those who have died in war and conflict, and perhaps also those we have personally loved and lost. Remembering can be painful, but it is also and act of love. To remember someone is to say that their life mattered, that they are not simply forgotten and that their story remains part of ours.

And then, almost imperceptibly, we begin to look towards Christmas.

It is easy to think of Christmas as the destination, with everything before it simply leading up to the familiar celebrations. But the Church gives us Advent first: a season of waiting, watching and preparing. Advent acknowledges that we live in the space between what has been and what is still to come.

Perhaps that is why these months can speak so powerfully to us. Harvest invites us to look around and give thanks for what we have received. Remembrance invited us to look back and honour those who have gone before us. Advent invites us to look forward, with patience and hope.

And at the heart of Christmas is the extraordinary Christian belief that God does not remain distant from any of this. God comes among us. In Jesus, God enters the ordinary stuff of human life: its joys and sorrows, its beginnings and endings, its uncertainty and its hope.

So, as we enter these “-ber” months, perhaps we might resist the temptation to rush towards Christmas. There is wisdom in taking each season as it comes: giving thanks, remembering, waiting and hoping.

And perhaps that is a good rhythm for life itself.
To give thanks for what we have, to remember with love what has been, and to face what is coming with hope.

May God be with us in all three. 

With every blessing

Beth x