Monday, November 24, 2014

Song of Old: An Advent Calendar for the Spirit

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. 

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