Advent is Upon Us
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”
—Matthew 1:23
Every kid knows that Christmas Eve feeling of anticipation. The one where you’re laying in bed but it’s not really laying down – it’s more like bouncing around and tossing and turning as you imagine all the gifts under the tree. Every year our family would travel to Prince Edward Island (from Philadelphia) for Christmas. We would arrive at my grandparents late in the evening on Christmas Eve and my parents would quickly usher my siblings and I off to bed… where we lay awake in anticipation for the better part of the night.
Full disclosure – at some point during the night we would each take turns going out to the tree to shake and inspect each of our gifts, which only further prolonged our sleeplessness and increased our anticipation. It’s that feeling of anticipation that is captured in the season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparatory celebration as we remember the arrival of our Saviour and await His second return.
There is a longing in every human heart… a longing to find everlasting joy, deep rest, true freedom, and lasting hope. The season of advent is a time when we remember that all of those things are found only in Jesus. It’s our prayer that we would recapture the joy we have in Christ and the hope we have while we await His return. Join us this advent season and invite family and friends as we celebrate the expected Jesus.
Here are three specific reasons why I am excited about this Advent season:
It creates a time for us to slow down and specifically focus on the incarnation of Christ.
Just stop for a second and ponder this truth from John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The God of the universe stepped down from heaven and came to live among us. But not as a lavish king with great wealth who merely wanted to assert his authority over his subjects. No… God came to live among us as a baby. Jesus, the Son of God, humbled himself to serve us. This is one of the distinguishing marks of Christianity and something we must pause and let it affect our soul in this Christmas season.
This is a season where more people are open to going to church.
Even in a post-Christian context there is still something about the Christmas season that creates greater inroads for people to go to church. The data shows that this is a time of year where the chances of your unbelieving co-worker, friend, or family member being more receptive to an invitation. And more likely to respond positively to that invitation. So who is on your list? Is there someone you’ve been wanting to or meaning to invite to church? Is there someone who you’ve given up on inviting to church? This is the season to invite for the first time or invite again… and then begin praying.
*ps. we’d love to know who you’re inviting so we can be praying by name for those people. Don’t forget you can always email us those prayer requests at prayer@portcitychurch.ca.
Our upcoming advent series is rich with hope that we need a clear reminder of today.
Over the next four weeks we’ll focus on these four words: freedom, rest, hope, and joy. Think about our current cultural climate with all the divisions and animosity between warring political parties and divisive worldviews. Think about the actual wars that are being fought around the world at this very moment. Think about the rise in mental health year over year and the amount of people desperately in search for something to answer the emptiness and subtle (or not so subtle) despair that permeates their heart.
Advent reminds us that God has done something about that and his name is Jesus. What our neighbour, our community, our city, and our world needs most is Jesus. Over these next four weeks we will open up God’s Word to be reminded of this life-transforming truth.
We look forward to celebrating the coming of our Saviour together as a church and we pray that in this advent season your heart would be re-awakened to the beautiful truth of our incarnate Christ.
