Today marks the first Sunday of Advent, and to me the beginning of the Christmas season. Though our neighbor's have had a "Countdown to Christmas" clock in their front yard since October 1 (no joke), it is on this day I begin to anticipate the coming of Christmas.
Here is a devotional that we shared as a family tonight as we began to consider the Advent season upon us. May it encourage you this holiday season...
"The Church centers its attention these days on a season we call 'Advent,' a season of preparation and hope. We are summoned in the first week of Advent to be on guard, to be ready, and prepared for the coming of the Lord.
Unfortunately, this holy season gets lost in the shuffle of preparations for Christmas, already begun in our secular society. A maze of glitter and frivolity highlights the material aspects of a feast that is long off, and misses the true spiritual meaning of the event.
So we need the Advent season to help us focus our attention on a spiritual preparation of the celebration of this greatest event of history, the birth of Christ. All too quickly Christmas day will be here. It will have much more meaning for us if we have prepared for that day spiritually.
I invite you to take a moment each day to reflect on our reason for hope this Advent season. Take out a little time to enter into the season with hope in your heart, awaiting this coming feast as the people of Israel did...You will find as they did, that God comes in a special way to the people who steadfastly hope for his coming."
Here is a devotional that we shared as a family tonight as we began to consider the Advent season upon us. May it encourage you this holiday season...
"The Church centers its attention these days on a season we call 'Advent,' a season of preparation and hope. We are summoned in the first week of Advent to be on guard, to be ready, and prepared for the coming of the Lord.
Unfortunately, this holy season gets lost in the shuffle of preparations for Christmas, already begun in our secular society. A maze of glitter and frivolity highlights the material aspects of a feast that is long off, and misses the true spiritual meaning of the event.
So we need the Advent season to help us focus our attention on a spiritual preparation of the celebration of this greatest event of history, the birth of Christ. All too quickly Christmas day will be here. It will have much more meaning for us if we have prepared for that day spiritually.
I invite you to take a moment each day to reflect on our reason for hope this Advent season. Take out a little time to enter into the season with hope in your heart, awaiting this coming feast as the people of Israel did...You will find as they did, that God comes in a special way to the people who steadfastly hope for his coming."
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