Why our family is celebrating Advent this year.
This weekend, we put up the Christmas lights, started decorating the tree, and then sang Christmas songs at church.
Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas—which, for many of us, feels like a rush into chaos.
Between all the gift giving, cookie baking, and party hosting, it can be difficult to find time to breathe, let alone reflect. Our consumeristic culture returns each year in full swing, doing all it can to dazzle and distract us; believe me, this Christmas season won’t be any different.
Believers sport bumper stickers and coffee mugs with the saying ‘Jesus is the reason for the season,’ but do we really mean it? Would Christmas be just as joy-filled even if Santa and his sleigh were taken out of the picture?
Part of celebrating Advent is slowing down and letting our hearts and minds be reoriented around the coming of Christ. This season is a celebration of many things, but mostly—powerfully—it’s a celebration of a baby boy born 2,000 years ago in the tiny town of Bethlehem. He is Jesus: the long-awaited Messiah. He spent his days on earth healing the sick, speaking life to the hurting, and bringing sight to the blind.
But it didn’t just end there.
In the greatest act of love this world has ever seen, Jesus gave up his life for the redemption of humankind.
I don’t know about you, but that’s what I want to celebrate this Christmas—a gift much greater than the latest department store gadgets and gizmos. In light of this, here are some ways that I’ve found to make the Advent season more meaningful.
First, learn to live and lean into the moment. The Advent season isn’t just for Anglicans, Baptists, or Pentecostals—it’s for all ...
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