Ian Morgan Cron has written an intriguing blog post titled, "Is Jesus Just Background Music in Your Life?" He wonders out loud about whether there is so much Jesus "background noise" in our lives that we lose hold of the intrigue and mystery of who Jesus really is.

Cron quotes Max Picard’s The World of Silence, in which he writes,

Today, when there is only noise in and around man, it is difficult to approach the mystery. When the layer of silence is missing, the extraordinary easily becomes connected with the ordinary, with the routine flow of things, and man reduces the extraordinary to a mere part of the mechanical routine.

Advent is a time for shutting out the background noise, even background noise about Jesus. Advent is a time for honing in and really listening to the genius in the music, so to speak, of the crazy, improbable, life-giving story of God's divine power breaking through the sky and coming to rest in a manger.

This Advent, what are you going to do to preserve your layer of silence? How are you going to keep enough space between yourself and the noise of Christmas preparations that you can focus on the mystery of God-made flesh?