Advent means...."coming". Celebrating Advent means we are celebrating the coming of Jesus. We celebrate the fact that Christ came as the Savior of the World.
God is ridiculed as a cruel, unloving, unjust God yet how do he present his Son? as a baby. The Son of God whom the heavens could not contain was born of a virgin and he came slow and soft...like the still snow. He could have come triumphantly and loud but our God chose to come in love...through a miracle of the virgin birth.
Christmas is a magical time for me. Not because of some fake person that my parents told me about or that always showed up at Christmas parties, but because of the still, small child called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, ALMIGHTY ONE who was born for one purpose and one purpose only...to save me from my sins. My heart breaks for those who don't believe in this. Who celebrate to give a performance, show off money, make a kid happy with one more pointless and needless toy. Big and glossy, fast and hurry is how the world turns. There's never enough time in the day...hurry, go, fast....hurt. That is how we run. But God, "when He comes - He shows up in this fetal ball. He who carved the edges of the cosmos curved Himself into a fetal ball in the dark, tethered Himself to the uterine wall of a virgin, and lets His cells divide, light splitting all white. HE GAVE UP THE HEAVENS THAT WERE NOT EVEN LARGE ENOUGH TO CONTAIN HIM AND LETS HIMSELF BE HELD IN A HAND."
advent wreath for 25 days of remembering our Savior Coming...candle for each night
our Jesse Tree....
"The mystery so large becomes the Baby so small, and infinite God becomes infant. The Giver becomes the Gift, this quiet offering."
We celebrate Advent every year and each year I become more anxious to get there....anticipating re-learning and re-living the Christmas Story. Reading scripture every night with the kids from The Greatest Gift
hanging ornaments on our Jesse Tree. Counting the 25 Days of Christmas together to spend slow, quiet, still time with my family. Intentionally putting Christ back in Christmas because over time it has been taken away.
It's late November and it's not too late. Ann Voskamps book The Greatest Gift is at any local book store. Liz Curtis Higgs book The Women of Christmas is also there and is a great devotional for you...mother of the family, sister in Christ, daughter of a King. Ann's free Jesse Tree ornaments are free and printable.
I hung 25 days of Christmas on our tree as decorations this year....ranging from baking cookies for our neighbors, making a shoebox nativity, lighting Advent Candles, Read Scripture, making ornaments, family nights and so on.
The purpose of this Christmas is to bend low, be slow and write this story on your heart.
Advent is coming.... I'm so overwhelmed with Joy!
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