Advent
rolls around again. It’s not the first time I think about Christmas. In fact I have been seeing Christmas
decorations in all the stores since before Halloween. It is the first time I accept Christmas. It is the week I begin turning my heart to
what the season is meant to be all about.
As I begin to experience Christmas again this year, I need to hold my
heart open to the holiness of the season or I have no chance of making it a
holy season.
It starts with
fighting off the world and all its trappings at Christmas. There is nothing holy about frantically
buying gifts I can’t afford, packing my schedule with events and parties that
drain my energy, and eating every delight that is set before me.
The season
begins with high hopes that will be fulfilled only if I set my hope on
Jesus. He brings hope to every
heart! Hope will help us make this
season a holy season. If you have an
Advent wreath, use it to help you maintain your focus on the holiness of this
time of year. The circle of evergreen
dotted by a candle to light each week with the white candle in the middle, ever
reminding you of Christ, is untainted by the other trappings of Christmas. It forces you to remember that Christmas is
holy.
You have to
orientate your soul to feel hope because hope is about what is not seen. Christmas is thrown in your face and can
distract you from hope. The first
candle of Christmas is called the Prophet’s candle. The prophets held on to the hope that God would
do what He said He would do. Year after
year they held on to the promise of the Messiah even though hundreds of years
passed without a sign of Him.
Holiness
was everywhere Jesus was while He lived on this earth. Not everyone recognized His holy presence. There is holiness in the air at Christmas,
but it can easily be overcome by all the pressure and pleasures the season
offers.
I will live
in holy hope as I focus on my living King.
He is in heaven reigning over the spiritual kingdom that will never
leave me hopeless. I have more reason
than the Israelites in Isaiah’s day to believe in the light that has come. Isaiah 9 talks about the child that is born
with a special introduction in verse 2—The
people walking darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of
the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Each Sunday
before Christmas I will remind myself that this is a holy season as I bring
light to represent the hope that cannot be taken away from me because the child
was born at Christmas, He became a man who taught me how to know God as my
father, then He died on a cross, was buried and rose again. I wish you a holy season.
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