waiting … coming… Advent

I’ve heard this word since the better part of my childhood: Advent. I always knew this involved candles, purple, and the sweet white-haired people at my home church getting really worked up about it. But what was it? What is it? What is it about Advent that I’m supposed to get excited about?

I’ve shared before that having a child changes so much about the way a believer can think about the Christian faith. We are always to cautious to make sure what we are teaching and showing Isaiah has biblical backing. But back to Advent. This year we made an Advent calendar. She’s asked me at least 49 times ‘what is an Advent calendar?’ – and to be honest, I had to look it up to know for sure. To know for sure where it comes from, what it means… No one ever told me. It was just ‘what we do{did}’.

Advent: the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event…is what it says when I google the word. 🙂 I also found this fantastic article from Noel Piper: what is Advent? , that includes scriptural backing. In trying to figure all of this out for Isaiah, I’ve realized that there’s a whole aspect of Christmas I’ve missed all this time… the waiting in anticipation NOW for Jesus THEN & NOW.

As believers, we wait for the second coming – we wait for His return. But what about taking this Christmas season and waiting in anticipation for His birth, for what started the entire sovereign series of divine events that give us the opportunity to have relationship with God?

Advent is a time that we can set apart and really focus on what really happened so long ago. A young teenage girl accepted a revelation from an angel with no questions asked & God used her willing heart to change the world.

Can the same be said for us? You bet it can. We fix our eyes on Him Coming this season… waiting for Him to return… it makes this so much more exciting… why don’t you give it a try? Advent.