Many assume that Advent and Christmas are the same thing - but you know better. Christmas is the story of Christ’s birth - an angelic choir, a guiding star, a manger and magi - all part of a specific event. Christ is born! But Advent is the story of waiting - months, years and centuries of waiting for that event. Christmas proclaims God is with us. Advent whispers that God is coming. 

God was once your size. He was as small as you have ever been. The vastness of infinity was tucked into the confines of our physical frame. God was small enough to be seen in His wholeness. He was reduced to a size that could be carried. His greatness shrank to embryonic proportions. That is the Christmas truth and miracle of the Incarnation.

Icons are common in our society. They can be celebrities that have transcended their personal identity and become representative depictions of their field. Mention “Gretzky” and we automatically think hockey. But there are more icons in our culture than superstars. A picture of an Apple makes you think of computers. A Green Giant points to peas and corn.  And of course, a cross on a building or necklace is filled with meanings of faith.

Every believer tastes the distance of God. When the clouds of life smother us with darkness, it is common to look up and see no light. Abraham, David, Elijah and Job form a quartet questioning, “God where are You?” It is a question that presses against the head and heart of those who love and follow God. Advent is an answer to the dilemma.