In the poems that appear here imagination plays a significant role. We do not know exactly what people expect or anticipate at Advent, but we know it can be radically different, depending on one's situation in life: the poor, the homeless, those enveloped in war, the wealthy, the desperately ill or injured. What one awaits does not change the nature of Christ's coming, but it greatly influences how Christ is received. One thing is quite clear: it is the love of God that descends to earth in this child, a child of peace and goodwill. If one is not awaiting these things, one's celebration may be well-meaning but very wrong-headed. These poems imagine what Advent and Christmas are not and what they might be. How might they be seen through the eyes of the poor and marginalized? How might they be viewed by a business concern? How are they misunderstood? What does Christmas mean, when a bell rings on Christmas Day, and a church building has been destroyed and all that remains is the bell tower?

S T Kimbrough, Jr., holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently a research fellow of the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. He is author of the following books by Wipf and Stock: The Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley; Radical Grace: Justice for the Poor and Marginalized; Partakers of the Life Divine: Participation in the Divine Nature in the Writings of Charles Wesley; Charles Wesley in America, and six books of poetry, including: Why Should a Child Be Born? Poems for Peace and Justice in the Middle East; Of Death and Grief: Poems for Healing and Renewal; Rethinking Christmas; Snowbound; A Seagull Lunch and Other Nature Poems, and We Need Mountains: Poems for Creation Care and World Powers.