Advent reflections

It's surprising how many Christians celebrate Christmas but know nothing about the corresponding Christian season of Advent. Just as the twelve days of Christmas (December 25-January 5) celebrate the birth of Jesus, the preceding four weeks of Advent remember Israel's anticipation of the Savior. In writing about Advent, Doug Floyd rightly observes that "Our culture tries to bypass the desert of Advent longing and enter directly into the fun of Christmas play." Here's Doug:

During Advent, we learn to enter into the story. Not simply the story of a birth, but the story of death and new life. We discover the story of a people, God’s people who’ve been scattered into exile in Babylon, Assyria, Egypt and the uttermost parts of the earth. They have been forgotten in the “valley of the shadow of death.”

As we reflect on their exile, we may come to realize that it is our exile. For we also know the valley of the shadow of death. In this place of trial, we have faced our own disappointments, our own struggles, our own pains, our own sins. Only in the “valley of the shadow of death” do we come to realize our desperate need for a Savior.

If we are not rescued, we will die in our grief, in our sinfulness, in our unforgiveness, in our suffering and sorrow. The only way out of the valley of the shadow of death is through death. So we look to the king who has conquered death. And now finally we may discover that Advent is both a season of the year and a season of our life.

For it is in the advent season in our lives, the season of waiting and longing and grieving and weeping, that we discover the grace of God flowing down like deep joy from a far country.

Amen.