On this final Sunday of Advent, as we move toward the celebration of God’s radical new creation in Christ’s coming, we are reminded that God is not finished with us. Though the news may seem dire, and our energy for new work may be waning, our projects of self-fulfillment are failing, God is inviting us to the newness of God’s mercy that is fresh every day.

Mary, John the Baptist, and all the new parents of the world have an important message for us in Advent. We, too, are heralds. We proclaim the coming of new ways of life all the time. But we should take care in choosing which tidings we bear, because whatever we help usher into the world, we will become beholden to. Whatever paths we make in the desert, we will have to travel down.