The Advent Advantage
- Nov 30, 2015
- 2 min read
It gets dark early these days! Frankly, I find it depressing. I am a summer girl and I love the long days, the smell of fresh life-filled air and the warmth of the sun. If I can have all of these things and be at the beach, all the better!
But Advent happens in the darkest month of the year. There's a reason for that.
When we think about Jesus coming into our world, we are well aware that it was a dangerous move on God's part. Jesus came as an infant, weak and vulnerable. Those in power who were told he was born to be a great king began to seek his death. His parents had to flee the country as refugees and live in Egypt until Jesus' life was no longer in danger.
There aren't too many things that are darker than that. When parents have to hustle their children off to a foreign country in order to keep them from getting killed by a soldier's sword, we can clearly see the palpable darkness the world so often produces.
So, why celebrate Jesus birth in the darkest month? Because he is the light that can penetrate that darkness. In fact, he is the only light that truly can. At Advent, we recognize that Jesus' light was fragile and faint with no more power than that of a mere baby. And yet, the darkness did not, could not, overcome it. And if the darkness cannot win, that's reason enough to celebrate!
But we don't just celebrate, do we? If all we ever did was buy presents, decorate trees, make food, and, in other words, celebrate, we might never do the real work of Advent! Welcoming Jesus' light into the world is not something we merely acknowledge, it is something we live within.
Sometimes it seems very faint indeed, this little light. But when we hope in it, live by its glow, walk in the path it reveals, it becomes more powerful. It becomes steadier, if you like. A flame that defies the great howling depths of any void and burns steadily on.
Can you imagine such a flame as that, one that can withstand the storm, the tragedies that sweep across our lives like an ill wind? That is the light our Lord promises to those who seek him. That is the Advent Advantage. No matter how deep the darkness of our lives or our circumstances, Jesus' light of hope and peace, of joy and love will be there in the midst of it, leading us to a the dawn of a new day.
Hallelujah and Amen!
-Beth
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