When you were a child can you remember waiting in anticipation for Christmas or your birthday or a wonderful outing? We looked forward to it, we jumped up and down and badgered our parents to hurry up!
We have just entered the season that the church calls Advent, where we get the name for the Advent calendars that some enjoy. This season is the beginning of the church year, a time where we anticipate and remember the first coming of Jesus as a baby and look forward to the time that he will come back to earth and make all things new.
Advent is a time to reflect on what ‘Emmanuel’, God with us, really means. We approach this season with awe and amazement that God himself would choose to come to be with us in Jesus. He chose relationship, Jesus as our friend and brother and God as our loving Father. This is mind-blowing! The ‘God of all’ wants to have a relationship with us, to make us one of his family, he loves us and cares for us.
‘God with us’ causes hope to rise in our hearts and the energy of the Holy Spirit to flow through us. We are part of God’s family because Jesus came to live on this earth and we celebrate his birth in this season of Christmas.
May the Lord Jesus bless and keep you. Merry Christmas!
Rev. Joy