All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

by Gayle Boss, David G. Klein (Illustrator)

Overview

An ECPA 2023 Christmas Bestseller!
From the bestselling author of Wild Hope — a beautiful book for Advent.

Open a window each day of Advent onto the natural world. Here are twenty-five fresh images of the foundational truth that lies beneath and within the Christ story. In twenty-five portraits depicting how wild animals of the northern hemisphere ingeniously adapt when darkness and cold descend, we see and hear as if for the first time the ancient wisdom of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.
 
Short, daily reflections that paint in vivid detail the intricate and astonishing ways that familiar animals, from the honeybee to the porcupine, prepare for winter. Paired with charming original wood-cut illustrations, this daily devotional will engage both children and adults. Anyone who feels tired of the consumer hype of “the holiday season” will be refreshed and awakened to the eternal truth the natural world reveals, and will welcome this book. 

Advent, to the church Fathers, was the right naming of the season when light and life are fading. They urged the faithful to set aside four weeks to fast, give, and pray—all ways to strip down, to let the bared soul recall what it knows beneath its fear of the dark: that there is One who is the source of all life and is ever creating, One who comes to be with us and in us, even, especially, in darkness and death. One who brings us a new beginning.

The more I'm with animals and the more I learn from them, the more I know they can be more than our companions on this planet. They can be our guides. They can be to us "a book about God...a words of God," the God who comes, even in the darkest season, to bring us a new beginning. — Gayle Boss, Introduction to "All Creation Waits"

Learn more about All Creation Waits and find free resources at AllCreationWaits.com

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612617855
Publisher:	Paraclete Press
Publication date:	10/03/2016
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	115,051
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.38(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gayle Boss writes from West Michigan, where she was born and raised. Her lifelong love of animals and her immersion in spiritual texts and practices have melded in poems and essays that explore how relationships with animals specifically, and an attentive presence in the natural world generally, restore us to our deepest selves. Also the author of Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing, Gayle lives with her husband and Welsh corgi rescue.

"Writing about animals and the human-animal bond is the writing that enthralls me. I’ve found it true, what the thirteenth-century mystic Meister Eckhart said: 'God is equally near in all creatures.' Many human creatures and two corgis have loved me and encouraged my work. Beyond them, the creatures and landscapes of Michigan’s west coast, often wounded, open to me wonder after wonder." — Gayle Boss

David G. Klein is an award-winning graphic artist, novelist, printmaker, engraving artist, and co-founder of Brooklyn-based Point Made Animation. He is a third generation graphic artist who started his career in his father’s ad agency, doing design and print production. Klein’s grandfather taught typography at the New York High School of Art & Design. Klein attended Pratt, where his father previously taught. His illustrations have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Random House, Tor Books, DC Comics, and Marvel.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Each of the beautiful creatures in this little book is a unique word of God, its own metaphor, all of them together drawing us to the One we all belong to. Adapting to the dark and cold they announce in twenty-four different ways the Good News of Advent: that through every dark door the creating Love of the universe waits.” —Richard Rohr, OFM

“A wonderfully refreshing sidelong book that makes you stop and think and ponder and consider and contemplate and see not only Advent but your entire blessed life with new eyes. Which seems to me to be the whole point of any generous honest art. Which All Creation Waits most certainly is.” —Brian Doyle, author of Chicago

“This book is a delight to savor and behold. I am someone who believes that the earth is our original monastery, and this worthy guide invites us intimately into the gifts of winter by exploring the rhythms of various birds, bees, and animals during the holy season of Advent. A lovely invitation into the quiet mysteries of darkness.” —Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, author of Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics

Editorial Reviews

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings showcases twenty-five fresh images of the foundational truth that lies beneath and within the Christ story. In twenty-five portraits depicting how wild animals of the northern hemisphere ingeniously adapt when darkness and cold descend, we see and hear as if for the first time the ancient wisdom of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes. Short, daily reflections that paint vivid, poetic images of familiar animals, paired with charming original wood-cuts, will engage both children and adults. Anyone who does not want to be caught, again, in the consumer hype of ‘the holiday season’ but rather to be taken up into the eternal truth the natural world reveals will benefit immensely from reading All Creation Waits. An informative and inspiring read from cover to cover, All Creation Waits is especially recommended to all members of the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliation. —Midwest Book Review

“Each of the beautiful creatures in this little book is a unique word of God, its own metaphor, all of them together drawing us to the One we all belong to. Adapting to the dark and cold they announce in twenty-four different ways the Good News of Advent: that through every dark door the creating Love of the universe waits.” —Richard Rohr, OFM

“Gayle Boss writes lovingly about animals in their habitats using rich and lyrical language. Children will learn—and be awestruck—as their parents read about creatures they know, and don't know.  I'm certain families will make reading this lovely book together a yearly tradition, whether they observe Advent or not.  All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings is a beautiful addition to any family library.”—Deborah Heiligman, author of Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith, a National Book Award Finalist

“To be awake in the world each winter is to sense loss, to know the weight of waiting. This book’s illustrations and descriptions of the winter habits of 24 animals are gentle lessons in biology—about how lactic acid pools in the bloodstream of a turtle or a porcupine’s gut digests wood. But the animals are also a metaphor for faith, and the final chapter explores the meaning of a God who became incarnate ‘as a child at home among animals’ for the sake of a creation that still waits.” —Christian Century

“A wonderfully refreshing sidelong book that makes you stop and think and ponder and consider and contemplate and see not only Advent but your entire blessed life with new eyes. Which seems to me to be the whole point of any generous honest art. Which All Creation Waits most certainly is.” —Brian Doyle, author of Chicago

“This book reminds me of what St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:19—All creation waits! In this invigorating view of Advent the contrasts are beautifully presented—between darkness and light, waiting and arrival, sleeping and waking, human and animal creatureliness. The stories and illustrations partake of the kind of reality Christ exemplified in his Advent...How helpful it is to join the animals during their Advent waiting.” —Luci Shaw, Writer in Residence, Regent College, author and poet

"This is the book I gave to my family and friends two Christmases ago in hard copy. It is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen and so deeply moving with the story each day from December 1 to December 25 about what it takes for different animals to get through the winter cold. This book is something to share with your family or even alone to touch something that is very rare, and so real and heart-rending." —Trina Paulus, author of Hope for the Flowers

“This book is a delight to savor and behold. I am someone who believes that the earth is our original monastery, and this worthy guide invites us intimately into the gifts of winter by exploring the rhythms of various birds, bees, and animals during the holy season of Advent. A lovely invitation into the quiet mysteries of darkness.” —Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, author of Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics

From the Publisher