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