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Friday, December 16, 2011

Advent Thoughts

Advent:
1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important
2. The period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting

Advent is from the Latin and it means "coming".

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

God created the Heavens and the Earth. Everything was good. He made man, who was lonely, so he gave him a companion. They lived in complete perfection with access to everything, except for one tree. The two disobeyed, and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. As a result of their wrong doing, they were kicked out of the garden with no way of re-entry.

Years later, God made a promise to a man. He promised that He would bless him and make his offspring as many as the stars in the sky. The man and his wife were old and had no children. God stayed true to His promise and gave them a baby boy.

His chosen people, the offspring He had promised, had a history of disobeying God, apologizing, following the Lord, disobeying, apologizing, following, disobeying, apologizing, and following... It was their pattern (Mine too, might I add). God eventually let them do what they wanted to do, so much to a point that

He
was
silent.

He was silent for about 400 years. This is the time period between the Old and New Testaments. No communication, no audible voice, no prophets, no angels, nothing but silence. I'm sure they prayed but no answers.

God was silent.
Had he abandoned them?
Where was He?

Then an angel appears to a young girl, her husband-to-be, and their relatives all at different times with a message from the Lord. It's been such a long time since anyone has heard a message from God, so they must have been terrified. The angel says to them all," Do not be afraid." God is doing something and is using those who were anticipating the arrival of the One who would rescue them from the oppression they were facing. God spoke!

I put myself in Mary's sandals for a moment. In my head it's something like this: I'm a young girl, and an angel comes and tells me I'm going to have a baby. (Woah! What, Angel??) Then I say wait a minute, Angel! I haven't been with a man, so how can this be??? For real? "Not just ANY baby, but GOD'S baby... Mary, don't be afraid!" (Yeah, right, Angel!) But that's how it happened.

Now Mary, an expectant young mother, anticipates the arrival of her first born.

What are things that we're expectant of?

(Synonyms of expectant: anxious, anticipating, awaiting, eager, hopeful, looking for, ready, vigilant, watchful)

-Paydays ($$ not the candybar, although maybe someone is eager for candybars)
-Vacation
-Birthdays
-Christmas Morning
-First Day of School (I guess we're expectant of good things and not so good things)
-Birth of babies
-Returning home after a long absence
-Getting a drivers license
-Learning to Read
-Owning a home
-Living on our own for the first time
-First Jobs
-Marriage
-First dates
-Engagements
Those are a few things I think MOST people are expectant of.

The Christchild's coming into the world changed EVERYTHING. Nothing has or ever will be the same. After years of silence, God sent His son, Jesus, to the world. So NOT only is He speaking, BUT He is in the body of a man. For 33 years, Jesus walked on the earth-
God speaking,
God doing,
God loving,
God understanding man.

After His death and resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit. The advent of the promised Comforter ensures that God will never again be silent.

Anticpate more than just the gifts your family and friends give you. Your Heavenly Father's gifts are way more precious.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!"

Forgive me for a delayed blog posting, but sometimes I have to sit and ruminate about things. The month of December (so far) has been one of those times of pondering, digesting thoughts, and considering.

Last night while flipping through tv channels, I came across "A Charlie Brown Christmas". A Christmas classic from my childhood. I can remember receiving the book one year as a child. On IMDB's (International Movie Data Base)website the film is described like this:
"Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas."

Maybe this has been part of my pondering...

The transition from Indonesia to America hasn't been THAT difficult for us. There are a few things where we think," Woah, that's different." For the most part when we go to the grocery store we're grateful for the selection! In Indonesia if you want a bottle of BBQ sauce, you get one choice of flavor or brand and you pay whatever the asking price is. You do have endless varieties of instant noodles though. One thing that has been slapping me in the face is this compulsion to BUY. BUY. BUY.

When we returned for a seven month furlough in June, I wanted to BUY. I wanted to go shopping to the stores that I hadn't been to in three years. I wanted to buy clothes! I just wanted. I asked the Lord to release me from this compulsion to buy, and He did.

Maybe this has been part of my pondering...

Charlie Brown brings in his Christmas tree for the cast of the play to see. They laugh at how it looks. Then they turn their laughter to Charlie himself. I can just imagine how he must have felt. Even your closest friend pointing and laughing at you. He finally just yells out "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!" I have found myself asking the same thing.

Here's how the TV/Society tells me what Christmas is all about:
- Buy a Lexus with a red bow around it
- Buy gifts from under $100 (I guess $99.99 is still under that $100 mark)
- Don't miss the door buster deals starting at 10PM on Thanksgiving Day
- Do whatever it takes to get that great deal! (Use pepper spray if you must!)
- Buy diamonds
- It isn't Christmas without Starbucks Christmas flavors! (Has the Christmas Season started if you haven't tried a Peppermint Mocha?)
- It seems that Christmas is a time to ignore the basic rules of the English language and allows us to use "merry" as a verb and spell "season" as "ceason" to fit the initials of our network.
- Don't forget the "epic" battle between Mom and Santa.
- Christmas is about being on your best behavior because a little Elf who sits on a shelf will give a final report to Santa regarding your nice-ness or naughty-ness.

I could go on and on but I'm asking myself:
"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!!!!"
 
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