So with this being the first Christmas my son can actually do anything besides sit, cry and eat (he’s about 18months now), I have been thinking a lot about Christmas traditions that we can do and what are the most important ones that build faith. Something I am trying out this year is Advent.
Advent has been around since at least 480 AD. It is the beginning of the Christian liturgical year. Advent is celebrated from the 4 Sundays before Christmas. The reason for 4 weeks is to spend the first two weeks in anticipation for the 2nd coming of Christ, and the second two weeks remembering the birth of Christ. As part of a group of churches that has no formal liturgy, I find anything to do with liturgy fascinating.
On each Sunday you light a candle, the first of which signifies hope. from what I can tell, you spend the week reflecting on the hopelessness that you have felt this past year. You remember the events that have drug your life into the sewers. Then you light the candle and you remember that your hope is unassailable because you have the light of Christ in your life. That hopelessness turns at the lighting of the candle into hope for not just yourself, but the whole world. You are given new hope to bring Christ into the world. Christ is coming again! Remember that He is our hope.
I am hoping that my family can find the hope of Christ this season, and I hope that your family can too.