All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

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 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 welcome this book.
 

"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

“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

Gayle Boss writes in Michigan, where she was born and raised. Her life-long 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. The mother of two grown sons, she lives in Grand Rapids with her husband.

David G. Klein is an award-winning graphic artist with illustrations for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Random House, Tor Books, DC Comics, and Marvel. He is a graphic novelist, printmaker, engraving artist, and co-founder of Brooklyn-based Point Made Animation.