My parents could define almost any word because they had studied Latin in high school. Back in the ‘60s, on our way to the Bronx, four of the seven kids in my family sat on the back seat of the family station wagon, awkwardly holding my dad’s gigantic, hard-covered, unabridged Webster’s Dictionary. We took turns flipping through to find “big” words that would stump Mom and Dad.
What Does ‘Advent’ Mean?
Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus,” which is translated as “coming.” Many folks believe that God “comes” to us continuously, disguised as unplanned events or people who inspire and help us. I identify these experiences as “divine winks.” Some refer to them as coincidences. At times, they are life-altering.Oftentimes in my life, they are comical and reminiscent of an “I Love Lucy” episode.
One of the benefits of having “Lucy tendencies” is that the Advent season is year-round for me. Remember those seven kids in the station wagon? They had 19 kids and their kids had kids. So every year, Thanksgiving involves baking a huge turkey about the size of Dad’s dictionary.
Recently, I got a new oven. It has a touch screen, similar to an iPad, and turns off with the slightest tap of a finger. Not surprisingly, this has been a problem for me, and Thanksgiving was not the day for Lucy to repeat this error. As soon as I put the turkey into the preheated oven, I taped a “DO NOT TOUCH!” sign on the touchscreen pad.
Unbeknownst to me, in securing my sign, I turned off the oven.
After a few hours, I decided to baste my bird. With side dishes prepared, tables set, and guests enjoying the appetizers, the turkey would be ready in 1.5 hours. Opening the oven door, I noticed the skin was pink. I touched the turkey, and it was cold. Thankfully, my sister, Paula, happened to be standing next to me and saw “wide-eyed Lucy.”
Realizing my dilemma, Paula said, “My friend Clara from Ghana stopped over yesterday and mentioned that in her country, people cook turkey the way Americans bake chicken. They cut it up and lay it in a baking dish. Want me to cut up the turkey? We can bake it. It’ll cook in half the time.”
Grateful for Plan B, I handed a butcher knife to my sister, who had rolled up the sleeves of her pretty outfit, ready to hack away. I ran down to the basement and, to my great surprise, found a huge, dusty, tin foil pan the width of our oven.
I laughed out loud as I ran upstairs.
Now, what are the chances of Paula standing next to me while 31 other family members milled around our house?
And Clara from Ghana stopping over the day before Thanksgiving and mentioning African turkey cooking methods?
“Adventus” moments are shared in the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. God comes to each of us, his beloved children. One of life’s greatest pleasures is recognizing these “divine winks” because, as Latin speakers know, “Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est” (“Where love is true, God is there”).
