Advent Season: Arrival

Advent, from the Latin, adventus, meaning ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’.

Today marks the beginning of the Advent Season; a season in the life of our faith wherein Christians around the world turn their hearts and minds and collective memories towards that first ‘arrival’. The first noel, the holy night when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, dwelling first in swaddling clothes in a borrowed barn and later in grave linens in a borrowed tomb.
Advent prompts us to look back 2,000 years and to celebrate when God-in-flesh entered our world and ushered in the first fruits of a new Kingdom. But Advent also beckons us to look forward to the long awaited second Advent when our Christ King will return again and set all things right and new.

As we live in between these two advents – the one past and the one on its way – we carve out a holiday season whose purpose is to remind us to celebrate the new born King. Somewhere along the 2,000 year journey from there to here the holiday has gotten detoured – dramatically so at times – and we find ourselves arriving at December 25th exhausted and in debt wondering where the time went, rather than approaching the season worshipful, hopeful, peaceful and celebratory; surrounded with people we love and reminders that the world is changed because of Jesus of Bethlehem.

Over the years Living Hope has sought to celebrate the Advent Season in a way that most faithfully reflects our faith and that’s our aim this year as well. This year, we’ll made gifts with friends, we will celebrated, we’ll raised money and raised awareness about the plight of children without parents and families without water and we’ll reflected on the meaning of Christmas, celebrating the first Advent and anticipating the one to come. That’s the invitation, to Advent differently with us this year.

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