It wasn’t even Halloween yet, and as my wife and I walked through the store we saw decorations for Halloween, a few random Thanksgiving decorations, and Santa was already on the scene as an inflatable man who had a light in his center. The constant whirrrrr of the motors could be consistently heard throughout the store as the inflatables were kept inflated. I grumbled about how things are going, and Heather told me to give it a week and the Valentine’s Day decorations will be out. As a society, we desire to keep the party going as much as possible… and businesses are pleased to oblige by having the next several holidays out for display.

Advent is a season of preparation. It is not a season of preparation that is glitzy and glamorous. Certainly, the Christmas season has taken this on, but this is where the Hallmark Holiday has overtaken the Divine. The season of Advent is to be a time of consideration. Lent is a season of consideration of our need for the Father, that He would send a Savior, as He repeats repeatedly through the Old Testament. It is a time of consideration of how Jesus comes to us, and an anticipation of that work He does. It becomes a time of preparation to receive Him anew on Christmas.

Advent becomes a quiet time, a meditative time, and it stands apart from the world that would seek to make everything a party. It is the pause of breath rejoicing that God keeps His promises. It’s the comfort that comes in crisp air in anticipation of the joys that come with Christmas. It’s being in worship rejoicing that the Father cares about each of us so much, that He promised us redemption while Adam and Eve were in the Garden and plotted the course of that redemption for all mankind as we come to the season of Christmas (the Mass of the Christ) where we identify the greatest gift that mankind has received. This year, through Advent, we are following LSB hymn #357 “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. We follow in the footsteps of faithful monks in centuries past as they would begin their meditation leading up to Christmas focusing each day on a various aspect of who the Messiah is to be. The themes are beautiful, they are vibrant, and they focus us properly. While the secular songs of the season are fun, hymns like this one orient us to seeing the baby in the manger, not the jolly fat man on the rooftop.

As we move through this Advent season, into the celebration of Christmas, I pray that each of you are surrounded by the warmth of the Spirit of God, and the love of the Father as we celebrate that our Savior is not far away, rather Jesus is Immanuel, He is God with us.

Blessed Holy Days,

Pastor Phil