What exactly is Advent?
I grew up celebrating and observing Advent. Well sort of, maybe. My mom would light the candles on the wreath. Sometimes we would sing some Christmas songs, but mostly we would gather round the table and eat and talk and then get back to playing with whatever we were into at the time. We didn't have the pink and purple candles that you often see in churches these days. Ours were just the four red candles and sometimes a white one in the center on Christmas day. Four Sundays before Christmas you would light one, and then the next Sunday two, and then three, and so the candles would become staggered in length leading up to Christmas. And when all four red candles were burning you knew Christmas was close and the gifts that you'd been waiting for would finally be yours.
I remember thinking to myself the first time I saw the pink and purple candles, "man, that sure takes the beauty out of the advent wreath". Apparently I just like the normal red, white, and green Christmas colors.
Later on I actually learned that the different colored candles represent specific things and were meant to prepare us and lead us up to Christmas day. It all makes sense, but personally I still prefer just the red and white candles. I struggle with trying to remember what the different colored candles mean. I just prefer to lump the whole month of advent into the rest of the Christmas celebration.
As kids we hoped and wished for specific toys to appear on Christmas. The excitement that came from the advent wreath, the lights, Christmas music, kept us hoping and wishing and wanting for what we might get on Christmas day. Sometimes we got what we wished for. And sometimes we didn't.
And as we get older we start to hope for brighter days, a better life, a bigger toy box. And often we get discouraged. Even when things are going great, we can look around and we realize that we live in a less than perfect world.
And then we start to think about Christmas. What's in the word. And it feels like everyone is caught up in "Christ came". How he came, who came to see him, and since God gave us the gift of his son, we should be giving gifts to everyone, at least to the people we love. And when we look in our own stocking it's not what we hoped for, or if it is, it's shadowed by cancer, COVID, financial issues, broken relationships, you name it. You probably have something down one of those lines in your own life.
The part that we often forget is why he came.
He came to show us how to make this a better place.
He also came and conquered death and showed us that life doesn't end in death. That's the part that we often forget or never even hear about. He came to let us know that he does have a better place for us after this one. A place where good things aren't shadowed by all of those dark things. A place where peace and joy are more than just a hope. And it's his free gift to you.
So let that be the hope of what's in our stockings. And knowing that we probably won't get to tear into our stockings just yet, let's enjoy the advent. Our candles are getting shorter and our wicks probably need trimmed. But let's not miss the excitement and celebration of this season in life.
Feed the birds, take some cookies to your neighbor, eat some pie with your friends. Celebrate. Our candles are short. Let's make the most of our time.
