Advent

At church our pastor is preaching about the book "Advent Conspiracy". Substituting compassion for consumerism. I always think about that at this time of year, but I haven't been able to come up with a great solution to the buying gifts thing. My family loves giving and receiving gifts, and to be honest, I do too. I don't care how big/expensive they are. I just like gifts. I like seeing what everyone gets for other people, and I like the anticipation when you're pulling paper off of a box.
I guess that, since we can't eliminate this piece of our cultural celebration fully, I've made a commitment this year to worship God more fully and enjoy Him during Christmas more than I do the rest of the year. Maybe it will continue and carry into this coming year for me. Because I truly love Him.

So, my first advent thought came today while I put up decorations to Steven Curtis Chapman's "Music of Christmas" (which is one of my very favorite Christmas albums ever).
"And our God is with us, Emmanuel.
He’s come to save us, Emmanuel.
And we will never face life alone
Now that God has made Himself known,
As Father and Friend, with us through the end, Emmanuel."

I love that God is with us. I love Him because He put aside godness and became a baby. And because He came to live on earth, He can now live in us. It become a trite thought because we're so exposed to it so often, but trutfully, it is so big and important and wonderful. we can't ascribe enough greatness to the idea. We can't understand it. But we can appreciate it.