Advent season is upon us and for many of us it's not a time of reflective meditation on Jesus. It is a mad scrabble pell-mell to live our busy lives on hyper drive with the added stress of finding the "perfect gift" (which really doesn't exist)! Do you know what I mean? or am I the only one wondering how does Santa do it? Without being cliché, I'd like to encourage all of us (especially myself) to slow down and remember the reason for the season.Possibly you come from an evangelical background that didn't stress tradition - me too! So the idea of Advent is quite a new one for me. For some of us Christmas growing up was a couple of days packed with too much food, too many presents and an overdose of nativity plays and "Hark the Heralds Angles." It was an event, not a season. We "did" Christmas, we didn't anticipate it (other then the gifts). But Advent is a lot more then that. Advent is expectation. Advent is reflection. Advent is a focusing of ourselves on one thing...actually One person. It's all about Jesus - nothing more & nothing less.
Jesus was the ultimate minimalist. Less was more. God became a Man. He stripped away His divinity, His control over life, His supremacy of will. Why? So he could be born into this world as a weak, dependant, crying baby. He wasn't born into a rich family, or into position, or influence. No, he was born into a poor family and took up a common occupation in land under foreign occupation. But that God who became a Man, would end up a Hero.
Why? What was the point? Sometimes we have to give to get. Jesus let go of everything to get one thing - YOU! You are His perfect Christmas gift (..hummm, so it does exist!) Let's reflect upon that this Advent season. As the world around us rushes head-over-heels in materialism, riding the wave of the next big fad, and fulfilling the lust of our eyes - STOP. Take time to smell the Christmas cookies. Pause. Breathe. Reflect. Consider- what was given that you might get? Remember, less is sometimes more.
