He's Coming!

I grew up celebrating the Advent season. The church would hold a potluck on the first Sunday of Advent and families, singles, older couples and friends would sit at long tables to enjoy a meal together and start the season off with a dose of community. But the real highlight was when we cleared the tables and spread newspaper down for the annual building of a family advent wreath. We wove pine branches around our family’s metal frame, adding berries and ribbon, and when it met our satisfaction we went up to receive our candles: 3 purple and 1 pink for the four Sundays of Advent and a white candle to stand in the middle, lit on Christmas Eve. Then the lights went down and each group lit their first candle as we sang Christmas hymns and prayed for Christ to be born anew in our lives.

It’s been many years since I have built my own advent wreath, but I still get a surge of excitement on the first Sunday of Advent. The longing and anticipation for the arrival of the Christ-child comes around and marks the end of “Ordinary Time” in the church calendar. From Advent until Pentecost, we are in “Sacred Time” – celebrating the great holy days of the Christian church (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost). One of the things I like about observing the church calendar is that it reminds me that time is not as linear as I sometimes think, shooting off like an arrow into the future. It is also a circle which comes around every year and gives me a chance to celebrate the things in life that are worth returning to over and over again: birthdays, anniversaries, the seasons, the stories of God at work.

One of the benefits of observing Advent is that it helps us pause to refocus on the meaning of Christmas. Otherwise, it is so easy to count time by marking how many shopping days are left, how many parties there are still to attend, how long we can wait to mail those packages. Advent is a way to remember the journey to that stable in Bethlehem and of our own need to continue going back there with the prophets, the angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and of course the holy family. It prepares our selves to once again see the miracle of God coming to earth for our ultimate salvation and to recognize the longing that we have for him to come again someday and finish the journey that was begun so long ago.
This Advent, I hope you find a way to mark the time and anticipate the great gift of Jesus’ birth. There are many ways to do this, including Advent calendars, the lighting of candles, daily devotionals, or even just a whispered reminder “He’s coming!"