Fifth Advent: God’s Wild Pursuit

Who doesn’t light up at the sparkly-eyed expectation and thrill of children on Christmas Eve?! I remember lying awake all night as a child, the relief of sleep coming only in short and shallow doses before excitement woke me up again. It was the longest night of the year!     

For children, Christmas is a time to dream. It's a time to linger over wish lists and make one's greatest desires known, not just to moms and dads, but to the universe. Christmas speaks to them of the possibility of the things they long for but are beyond their grasp, of hopes and dreams coming true, of the impossible becoming possible. 

The Fourth Advent: Peace on Earth

The fourth candle of advent turns our focus to the peace that was proclaimed hundreds of years before Christ’s birth by Isaiah, and then again on the night of his birth by a chorus of other-worldly beings that emerged from the heavens. Their announcement was made to a company of humble shepherds keeping watch over their flocks of sheep in the hills near Bethlehem. 

It’s hard to imagine what such a proclamation would have meant to the ancient Israelites, but we can we envision “peace on earth” today? We are constantly made aware of volatile situations around the world that have the potential to erupt at any time; there are desperate people fleeing the poverty and violence of their homelands; families are hunkering down in refugee camps, and moms and dads are clutching their children tightly in war-torn and bombed out cities. Seeing the images in the news and watching videos of raw footage online can make the idea of peace seem far-fetched, even ludicrous.

But before peace can come between men to create good will towards each other and a peaceful world for people to live in, peace must live inside of man. 

The Third Advent: the Grace of Christmas Joy

Joy to the world, the Lord has come! Let earth receive her King! 

Let’s be real – there are days when the stuff we have to deal with has the power to sap the joy out of the entire week. Our own worries, stresses, disappointments, pressures, conflicts, and sadnesses have that capability, let alone circumstances around the world that we cannot help but be affected by. And for many people, the Christmas season – a time when joy is supposed to be at a premium – is often when the lack of it is intensified.

The Second Advent: Love Goes to War

“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.” Rev 12:1,2

“and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

There is a scene described in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation that takes away my breath every time I read it. It’s a version of the Christmas story that we do not see depicted on Christmas cards and it brings to mind those surreal battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies. It’s the passage that I turn to when I start to lose sight of God’s love for me and the bigger picture of what is really going on around me. 

Awakening to the Wonder of Christmas, Advent Week One

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us)." 

Matthew 1:23 

For more than 700 years God’s people waited to see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of one who was to be born to a virgin and known by the name Immanuel, the one who was to inherit the throne of Israel’s greatest king, David. Now, the announcements of the child who was conceived in a young virgin woman fanned into bursting flame the hopes that had been smouldering for eons.