I love Advent. Just as the doors of Heaven were closed to revelation for 400 years before the birth of Jesus, so we are gifted every year with 4 weeks of repentance and reflection before celebrating that blessed event.
Do you love Jesus? I do too. But I must always remind myself that he died for my sins. And so I hold Advent in reverence, because it is a time of introspection, of waiting for the gift to come; because the leaves have turned to brown and the frost has burnt away the green grass of my vanity and illusions.
Advent, coming at the gate of winter, reminds us that all flesh is like the grass. It withers and fades and is blown away in the wind. Advent gives us an opportunity to think about the fact that without Christ there would be no light in our lives. Our sins overwhelm us and the grave is our destination—unless the Son of God condescends to be born in a stable.
When we were children our parents bought us Advent calendars. A flap was opened every day to reveal some biblical nugget or hint at the joy to come. Those calendars made us wait. Our parents weren’t being mean. They were just trying to make us more mindful of the gift that was given and how important it is in our lives.
We are poor sinners who feed on the love of Christ. It’s important to think about that before all the feasting comes and the glut of gifts. The beautiful love of Christ, which surpasses all understanding—do we want to bask in this tender and gracious love? One way to do it is to discipline ourselves to wait. Set aside the celebrations for a season and wait like the Jews waited for 400 years.
They waited in darkness for the light of salvation to come, the light of life, which they could not earn by their deeds under the law. For four hundred years they waited; can we wait for four weeks? It was their dark night of hearing nothing from God, but then came the dawn. The Light shone in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
The long nights of Advent remind us of just how much we need this light in our lives. The sereness of the season can become a kind of sweetness. As painful as it is to ponder our sins, at the same time we know that our beloved Savior has covered them on the cross. His blood poured out for us is incredibly sweet. It has the power to save.
Advent is also a time to turn away from sin. “Make straight the way of the Lord.” The sweetness we long for obliges us to put away bitter deeds and destructive thoughts, to turn to God and change our way of living. This is how we pave the way for the child who was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.
That manger is our hearts. Let us pray in the weeks to come that we may be clean and furnished with fresh hay to receive Him.
Written by Jay Trott
