Author: Katie Z. Dawson
Info: Copyright 2017, Nashville: Abbington Press
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮
Where Acquired: Gift
Synopsis: Advent is a season of waiting in earnest expectation to celebrate the arrival of the Christ child, and to look forward to His second coming. Does all creation, as Romans 8:21-22 says, groan as with labor pains while awaiting deliverance from the Lord? The author takes an unusual approach by first focusing on flora and fauna and their role in Advent, then on how mankind can wait in expectation and observe nature's labor pains until the birth of the new heaven and new earth.
Select Favorite Quote(s):
Our Scriptures invite us to consider that destructive acts of nature like deadly hurricanes are not necessarily God's will, but reminders of the brokenness of all of creation. Our faith invites us to be open to the possibility that it is the sins of humanity that causes the torrential rain to fall and the harsh winds to blow. Our selfishness has brought death into the world (Romans 8:6). - p. 20.
- With five chapters at just over 100 pages, it was a short, quick read.
- I was totally engrossed in the message after the first chapter. I was pleasantly surprised that the focus was on all of creation in relation to advent, not just humans. However, in chapter two, the book takes a sharp turn from including creation in worship to worshiping creation itself. Dawson starts the chapter with the familiar story of A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie's frustration with letting commercialism override what and Who Christmas is truly about. While the argument is a valid one, her "solution" was to cease worshiping stuff and begin worshiping not having stuff. The saddest part of this chapter wasn't just the fact that she left the story of Advent to focus on a smattering of global warming and carbon footprint babble, but the story she told about a Christmas with her family was over the top. After the children open their presents, Dawson says, "I sat there in the aftermath, picking up bits of tape and paper that had been left behind, and wondered how many trees worth of paper and cardboard were carried to the curb" (p. 34). Jeez, what a killjoy. (Just a hint, if she was all that worried about it, she could have wrapped the presents in gift bags. As long as they aren't torn, gift bags are reusable.) I'm surprised she didn't lament over the greenhouse gasses and waste the parents were producing by feeding (or even having) the children. She then recommends some environmental websites, as well Marie Kondo's book (which, by the way, was born out of the author's own mental illness--I read the book three years ago and she admitted this herself). Yes, I think we as a society can get too caught up in the things of Christmas,. However, the solution is a greater focus on Christ, which makes our stuff tools for generosity rather than an altar on which to worship our reputations. After that, the book was no longer a shining tribute to the Advent season, but a book I dreaded reading every time I picked it up. I completed this volume out of spite.
- This book reeked of ostentation. For example, the author mentions all the wonderful foods her family enjoys making and consuming during the holidays, but she then goes on to tell the rest of us not to eat those "common" things. A typical bougie move. Kind of like climbing the latter of success, then kicking the ladder down to keep anyone else from reaching the same level of success.
- Has the author forgotten 1 Timothy 6:17, which says to hope in God, "who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (KJV)? It does not say that God gives us poorly all things that are politically correct, over hyped, and over priced to suffer through. This book works very hard to take the enjoyment out of the entire Advent season.
- The last chapter was one of the most confusing mishmashes of concepts I've ever seen. She tried to combine the concepts of God's abiding presence, the "ecology" of grace (it is actually called the economy of grace and has nothing to do with environmentalism at all), and taking a Sabbath. Dawson even goes so far as to suggest that on the Sabbath, the believer should, "refuse to use our cars or limit our energy consumption. . . . eat food prepared with the soil in mind ... refrain from consuming meat or only eat food which is ethically cared for..." Once again, the author is not encouraging the believer to take a day of rest to focus on and worship God, but to use this day to avoid time with God (you can't drive to Sabbath day services if you refuse to use your car) and worship the earth instead. No thank you.
Conclusion:
Romans 1:25 says, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator." I'm just going to leave it at that.
