By Jen Ludwig
By this time of year, Christmas decor and gifts have been on store shelves for months. I distinctly remember seeing an Advent calendar on display at Costco back in the overbearingly hot days of August. It was a beautiful carved wooden village complete with twenty-four little boxes to fill with treats to count down the days until December 25th.
For many, this is the focus of Advent: a fun holiday countdown marked by goodies, all leading up to the morning everyone can dive into their pile of gifts under the tree. Advent, however, is so much more than a calendar filled with colorfully wrapped chocolates.
The word Advent is derived from the Latin word adventus, which means arrival or coming. While many store-bought calendars start on December 1, Advent actually begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas (this year on Sunday, November 30). These four weeks commonly focus on
Advent is the season on the traditional church calendar set aside to prepare to welcome the King of Kings to the world and into our hearts. Notably, it marks the commencement of the liturgical year (versus the end of our Gregorian calendar).
It is the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1,4–5).
As we approach the darkest days of winter, we look with hope to the light glimmering on the horizon. We prepare for the One who has been with God since the beginning, whose birth brought light to the Earth two thousand years ago, and whose love and mercy is new every morning. But how do we prepare?
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