Riddle: What causes a great amount of excitement and
anticipation each year, makes us very busy, wears us to a frazzle; and, when it
passes, it has caused us to feel depleted…and our credit cards are depleted,
too?
Answer? It could be the annual IRS deadline; or a
number of annual holidays. But I’m thinking
mainly of Christmas.
Like us, maybe one of your biggest challenges each Christmas season is to set
reasonable goals for Christmas and plan well to achieve these goals. In this way, you can maintain your spiritual
and emotional focus while having time to enjoy the “true meaning of Christmas.” My hope each year is to enjoy Christmas not
just on December 25 but in the days leading up to Christmas Day. When the Day itself is all too quickly past,
often the best memories I retain are in my anticipation of the celebration of
Christmas with family and friends. After
all, “anticipation” is at the heart of the tradition of Christmas dating back
to the Book of Genesis where God revealed that He would send a Deliverer to be
born of the “seed of the woman” (Genesis 3: 17). During the several millennia that followed,
the descendants of Adam and Eve remained in anticipation of God’s fulfillment
of His promise. The promise was fulfilled
by God’s Gift of a Savior, born in a manger in Bethlehem, and named “Jesus”
because He would
save His people from
their sins (Matthew 1: 21).
The approach that Abby and I have used to enhance our time of remembrance of
the Advent (arrival) of the promised Savior, Jesus Christ, is to follow an
Advent
calendar. These calendars are of
different types and are easily found by searching for “Advent Calendar” online. Most Advent calendars provide daily or
weekly Bible readings which are often accompanied by a fun activity suitable
for individuals or family.
Let me suggest three Advent resources for you to consider. The first one invites you to focus on a Bible
theme related to Christmas for each week of the four-week Advent season. It has been prepared by our church,
West HillBaptist Church, here in Wooster, Ohio. The
weekly themes, starting with “The Need” of a Savior,” are each meant to prompt
us to reflect on why we celebrate Christmas and to consider how God would have
us respond to His “greatest Gift.” Please click on the thumbnail on the left.
The second Advent resource is from Focus on the Family and it provides a daily
Scripture reading, a short readable commentary, and a fun activity related to
Christmas. If you would like to try out this
excellent calendar, you can
DOWNLOAD HERE.
And, if you would like a sample of the
calendar, I have included the reading for today, December 6, as a sample (see thumbnail, below-right).
The third Advent resource is one that I prepared last December. It contains a daily Scripture reading and a short
commentary along with discussion to help you personally apply the truth for
each day. This Advent calendar goes by
the title,
Daily
Meditations to Enrich Your Christmas.
I hope these suggestions will enrich your celebration of Advent and the
Christmas season this year.
We hope you have a Merry
and Meaningful Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment