Advent

Advent.

 

From the Latin adventus, meaning 'arrival'.  From ad- 'to' + venire 'come'.

 

It means waiting for something or someone notable or important to arrive or to come.  It means looking forward with excitement and anticipation and joy. 

 

It means more than 24 little chocolates and a countdown to lots of presents and an incredibly large meal.

 

It's a  time when we look forward to Christmas day and look back to the first Christmas.  It's a time when we remind ourselves of how God stepped down into our world and lived amongst us.  It's a time when we remember the coming of Christ as a humble, vulnerable baby who was prepared to live and die for us.

 

Opening the doors of an advent calendar to get at the chocolates is always a nice way to start the day in December.  But it's also a reminder to us that Jesus came to ask us to open the door of our hearts to Him and to let Him in to our lives:

“Look!  I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."

 

[Revelation 3:20 NLT]

 

Jesus longs to be part of our lives.  Not as a judgemental kill-joy, but as a friend.

 

Each day of Advent, as we open another little door on our calendars, let's remind ourselves of the real purpose of our countdown, and to whom we are opening our hearts.

 

 

 

 

The Best of Both Worlds

I make the best brownies in the world.

 

Seriously.

 

I think brownies are probably my favourite thing to bake (and then eat).  They are a delicious and satisfying sweet treat, somewhere between cake and fudge.  Too squidgy and moist and dense to actually be cake, and yet too crumbly and flaky for chocolate fudge.

 

They are the perfect combination of both.  They are in a category of their own and I can't quite get my head around it.

 

In the same way, I can't get my head around the fact that Jesus was both a man and God.  And not just half man and half God, like a centaur or a mermaid - an odd combination of both things.  The Bible says that Jesus was fully God and fully human.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it [...] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

 

[John 1:1-5, 14 NIV]

 

The "Word" John writes about is Jesus.  He was with God in the beginning and is equal to Creator God.  But Jesus became a flesh-and-blood human in order to live with us and lead us back to God.

 

In The Message translation this passage reads,

 

       "The Word became flesh and blood,
       and moved into the neighbourhood."

 

       [John 1:14 MSG]

 

God became human through Jesus and 'moved into the neighbourhood'. 

 

Like brownies, Jesus is the perfect combination.  Cake and fudge.  Man and God. 

 

The best of both worlds.