ADVENTS – Should it be plural?

Like so many early seasonal promotions, I began seeing Advent calendars advertised months before Christmas.    Soap, puzzle, dog treat, and chocolate countdown calendars were among the ones I saw.  They are quite unlike the Advent calendars of my childhood.  In my young girlhood, my Nana sent us beautiful Nativity calendars featuring numbered windows.   My sisters and I took turns opening each day’s window to find an illustrated creche figure.  Window 24 always opened to the stable scene of baby Jesus in the manger.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, a season of the days or the Sundays leading up to Christmas.  It is a countdown to Jesus’s birthday.  Worship services may focus on the traditional themes of the four Sundays of Advent.   Pastors often prepare sermon series based on Christmas topics.  Many of us read Christmas devotionals throughout December and return to the narratives of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  It is good to prepare for Christmas in these ways.  The countdown is exciting!

Advent means coming; we suppose anticipation.   We think of Jesus and His birth as arriving soon, but Jesus already arrived on earth some two thousand years ago on the first Christmas.  Advent, then, is a misnomer, unless something else is coming, to anticipate.  Yes, there is:  Jesus is coming again!  Jesus’ return is an Advent.  You may not know this fact and may not understand.   And Christians over time have not completely agreed on the exact details surrounding Jesus’ return, but all agree that He is returning, as declared in Scripture.  Jesus spoke about His own return in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 and writings in both the Old and New Testament further explain Jesus’ Second Coming.

May your December anticipate the 25^th and another miraculous day yet to come!

(www.gotquestions.org is a reliable resource for topics such as Jesus’ return)

Author: Brenda Proulx

Wife, mother and grandmother, educator and someone who thinks about the things I observe. I am the daughter of a writer; my dad's career was in the field of journalism. More significantly, I am God's child, a person believing in Jesus Christ and in His timeless Word. Blogging is new to me but I feel like I've always had a pen in my hand. I jot notes in my planner, mark papers, underline verses, write many letters, and occasionally draft articles for work or church. When I am not holding a pen, I am probably cuddling a mug of coffee. View all posts by Brenda Proulx