Some Thoughts on Advent, Week 1

Advent can be easily overlooked in the rush to get to Christmas. All too often we relegate it to a countdown of days.  However, for me, the times in my life when I have stopped to think about it, I find myself delighted with Advent.  One time was in college when I did an Advent sermon (which I wish I could find). Now is another, when I am getting to share some Advent thoughts for a progressive dinner.  This is my chance to look at those thoughts a little more in depth.

To be clear, it isn't so much the holiday, or observance, of Advent that excites me; it is what it represents. This is about God at work; God fulfilling promises; God with us. Oh, hallelujah!

So, the first thoughts to share about Advent, appropriately, come from the beginning.  Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." During that creation He formed mankind: the man, Adam, and the woman, Eve.  Adam and Eve went on to disobey God, to sin, thus bringing brokenness to us and our world.  The beginning is where Advent starts.

Sin separated us from God and put us in need of a Savior to bring us back to Him.  Throughout the centuries God gave promises that this Savior would come. This Messiah. Through stories we now know today: of Noah being saved from the flood; of Abraham who was blessed that through his descendants the world would be blessed; and through the words of the prophets, most particularly Isaiah.

Through this time all the people had of the Savior was hope. The hope of what God had promised; the hope of Who was to come - not knowledge of Who He was.  Then after the time covered in what we call the Old Testament, there was a period of silence from God. Four hundred years of silence.  Living in a sinful world, in silence from God, was truly darkness.

Then into that darkness, Matthew writes of Jesus using the words of Isaiah, "...the people living in darkness have seen a great light." (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:2).  Consider a match struck in a darkened room and how much difference that seemingly small light can make.  That would be like the short span of Jesus' life here on earth.  Stunning in its unexpectedness; a light to ignite other lights.

Make no mistake, though, Jesus was there from the beginning. As John chapter 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." (verses 1 & 2)."  That Word was Jesus.  In verses 3 through 5, John goes on to say, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

For your advent, consider a time of darkness in your life where God entered in with His light. Or perhaps a time of hope that came in spite of darkness.

Oh, The Embarrassment!

I have been thinking lately of a joke at myself that I made regarding my blog habits. It was that I seemed to only write here every other year.  I couldn't remember when I said it and I couldn't remember if I had gotten any posts done for the last "every other year" (2013).  But I had been pondering the possibility of fitting a few posts in here at the end of 2015 just to keep up the pattern.

So here I came with my ideas of what to post, and what do I see as my last post but the very thing I had been thinking of Every Other Year. It did confirm what I had hoped, that I had posted in 2013.  But it also said I had a plan that I would stick to this time around. "Attempt #3 is underway..." it said.

And it was the last post of 2013. So much for that attempt.  I have a couple of similar posts on here about what I planned to do. Each is a reminder of embarrassing failed attempts.  I don't do failure or embarrassment well.  So maybe this is a part of God's plan (as I originally said I felt He was asking me to do this: So, here goes). Maybe I need to learn to fail. Or maybe I need to learn to not rely on a plan. Or maybe both or neither.  Maybe it just is what it is.

The thing is, I still feel like I should write. And there are still abundant amounts of ideas I have. Even when I am not writing here, I think about it. It's not that I forget I have a blog, it's that I have so many other things in my life too.  At any rate, I will have at least one post for 2015; to keep up my pattern that gives me another year or two until I have to post again ;)  After all, I wouldn't want to be Failing at Planning (still my favorite post to have written :)