Advent

What is this season we call advent? Is it the busy preparations for the upcoming holiday season (i.e. the days off during Christmas)? Is it the chocolate count-down calendars? Is it shopping for gifts, baking lots of cookies and desserts, or decorating the house and tree? Is it parties and time with friends? As I've been thinking about it, it seems that these things are often the outward physical signs of advent, but they are not really what advent is supposed to be about.

To me, advent is a time of preparation, but not the physical aspect, rather the spiritual aspect. It's reflecting on Christ's birth, why he came, and making my heart ready for the second coming of Christ. We celebrate his first coming at Christmas, and anticipate his second coming at the same time. This past Sunday my church celebrated hope as the first advent. The Israelites were anticipating a Saviour coming - hope was not dead all those years ago. We anticipate the Saviour coming again which gives us hope in these days of economic uncertainty and political unrest.

A verse that speaks hope to me is this:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you..." Jeremiah 29:1-14a

I'm reminded that I need to seek HIM just as the wisemen did, and trust in HIS plan for my life. That is what gives me hope.

Hope in spring - new life