Miriam Scott has written a wonderfully imaginative and inspiring
Advent meditation, Song of Old: An Advent
Calendar of the Spirit. This
meditation, or better yet contemplation, consists of 24 short stories taken
from the lives of those who anticipated and participated in the events leading
up to the birth of Jesus. Like the book, The
Bronze Bow, whose author, Elizabeth George Speare transports readers to the
time of Jesus’ public ministry through the life and adventures of a young
Jewish boy. Scott transports us to the days leading up to the eve of Jesus’
birth through characters: real and imagined. Her writing is very rich and well researched.
The words jump off the page and paint a picture before your very eyes. This
story is a little jewel, finely chiseled. The images are rich, beautiful and
deeply satisfying. It is an incarnational work; it combines the spirit and the
flesh of literary language to draw fine, detailed pictures of stories that
touch the human mind and heart and make you sit back and contemplate those
mysterious days leading up to the birth of the Christ child.
I know that The Song of Old: An Advent Calendar of the
Spirit will accompany me through
Advent 2014, feeding both imagination and spirit. Its descriptions are rich
enough for adults and imaginative for children. It would make a wonderful
read-a-loud for the family. The stories/meditations/descriptions each day are
easily read in five minutes. They may be savored by adults for a lengthier
period of time. They will arouse wonder and curiosity. I can picture many
children asking numerous questions after hearing these stories. I suspect many
readers and those being read to will complain bitterly when the end is reached
because such a satisfying little work has come to its end: a glorious end, but
the end. Thank you Miriam for writing and sharing this beautiful Advent
calendar for the spirit. I look forward to the start of Advent and pondering
its pages.
Available on Amazon.com in softback or Kindle version.
