I love Advent! The music and the ritual helps me to get ready for the celebration of Christmas. The ritual of lighting the candles on the Advent wreath each Sunday as we get closer to the 25th December helps lay the foundation for my excitement! Jesus is coming!
Advent has wonderful themes that centre around obedience and God's giving to humanity who are often disobedient and grasping! Our failings as humanity can be admitted, whilst embracing God's solution to the problems we all face.
Advent has the best of double entendre, when we look towards the celebration of Jesus coming in the celebration of Christmas, and look past that celebration, with expectation, to his return. Advent and Christmas combine in my mind as the best of IOU's. Look at Jesus' incarnation and see in it the foretaste of his secnd coming to fulfill all the promises of God. It is a 'now and not yet' moment.
There is no doubt that there is much that could cause us to be downbeat about but God's voice is heard in the midst of that. He is not the God who provides light at the end of a tunnel rather he brings light into our darkness! He is like the match that is struck to begin lighting the candles of the Advent wreath all the way to the lighting of the Christmas candle that announces, 'Light has come!'
I hope that Advent becomes a season of hope for you and whatever you face, may you be aware that God is present!
