Advent is a time in which we share in the longing of all those who lived in the distant past. We must feel how, in their suffering and struggle, they too longed for redemption and liberation, for unity, for peace, for a golden age. They waited for a manifestation of God’s love and unity, for a breaking in of his justice among the nations.

- Eberhard Arnold

Perhaps you have waited for years to be freed from some need or sin. For a long, long time you have looked out from the darkness in search of the light. Maybe you have a difficult problem that hasn’t been solved, in spite of great efforts. But then, when the time is fulfilled and God’s hour arrives, a solution, light, and deliverance will come quite unexpectedly. Perhaps quite differently than you might think. Hasn’t this happened to you before, just as a baby comes at his own time, and no impatience or hurrying can compel it – but then it comes with its blessing and full of the wonder of God? Hasn’t God’s help come to you sometimes in this way?

- Eberhard Arnold

When we stand in reverence before God, our first, intuitive experience of him is of an almighty power, before which all human strength is a mere nothing. Like Elijah, the first prophets veiled their heads in shuddering awe when God was about to draw near to them.

- Eberhard Arnold