As we make our initial forays into the many mysteries of Advent and all that these imply, we might draw a page from the period of Western history known as the Renaissance.  Its name, which means "rebirth" or "revival," describes the birth of a new vision of human potential.  The Renaissance celebrates the magnificence of the human being.
     We remain creations of the Renaissance even today.  We see ourselves as beings who are capable of doing whatever we set our minds and hearts to do.  We believe that we, we human beings, are marvelous and astonishing creations, be it of inert matter or, gasp, of God.  Our possibilities are nearly endless.
     Curiously, however, the people of the Renaissance believed, for the most part, that their wonder was of God.  Ironically, although many of us today dismiss God as being irrelevant to our lives and human potential, we in fact live in the shadow of those who, for a very short time, believed the precise opposite, rooting human possibility in the inexhaustible creative power of God.
     As we ponder the mystery of Advent, as we contemplate how it remembers the "birth" of God in our reality, we learn from this insight.  We learn that however we view ourselves or God, because God appeared in our world, because he expressed himself in our experience, we cannot conclude that we are accidents.  If this was true, God would not have bothered to come.  What would be the point of repeating an accident?
     Today, in your life today, enjoy and treasure the Renaissance's fusion of human and divine.