Merry Advent!

Have a Holly Jolly Advent, it’s the best time of the year…

We tend to focus on everything *Christmas* and think Advent is only about the chocolate-filled calendars we may remember from childhood.

Or we think Christmas and Advent are the same thing.

Advent is not a single day

Advent is a season

Step back in time

over two thousand years, to a misty morning. Outside, the sun inched up over the horizon, but inside a cool stable, shadows clung to the straw-dusted floor. And nestled in the straw, a teenage girl cradled her newborn son in her arms.

This is the image of Christmas.

Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

What is Advent?

Advent is the season leading up to the great Miracle and Mystery of God humbling Himself to be born in human form to a teenage girl with only the loosest ties to Kings of old.

Advent has been an important part of the church calendar for generations, only more recently fading into the frenzy of holiday shoppers and pop songs. Advent, for early Christians, was a time of fasting, of thoughtful reflection, and of spiritual preparation.

Where has Advent Gone?

The answer requires more questions…

Who are we?

… to deserve God's greatest gift, to be grafted onto God's own family tree?

Who Was this Child?

… the one so tenderly held in a young woman's arms?

His Family Tree

… begins long, long before that moment in a stable. It begins before the Kings of old, like the father of King David, Jesse.