Advent Readings and Activities for Christmas

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!