Advent?

 

 Jeremiah 23:5-6 (ESV)

⁵ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

 

 

What does advent mean?  In general it means coming or arriving.  The Advent means the coming of Christ.  As we prepare for Advent, we are in good company.  The people in the Old Testament were preparing for the Advent from the time sin appeared on the scene.  They were told God was working out His plan to restore our relationship with Him.  That plan involved Jesus, God’s Son coming to earth to die for us.  So they all prepared for this event.  Many did not understand the plan, and most only knew a small fragment of the plan, but they talked about that part they knew and prepared and hoped for the day it would be fulfilled.

 

We prepare for Advent now, too, but it is with hind sight that we prepare to remember, and celebrate the fulfillment of the first phase of the plan.  We know what Christmas means, Jesus came!  We remember and celebrate that part of the plan each year.  We have added much to the celebration through the years.  In fact now we kind of push Jesus right out of the celebration.  We have fallen in love with the celebration rather than Jesus.  Just like a birthday loses its joy when we forget the person whose birth we are celebrating and celebrate the cake.

It is time to put celebration back in its place and focus on Jesus as we enter Advent.  Let’s do that today.  Focus on Jesus coming and find ways to celebrate that each day of Advent.