Advent Musings on a Saturday Morning...

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” ~ Luke 1:31-33

Welcome to the WEEKEND!  And it is not just any weekend; it is an Advent weekend.  Tomorrow is the third Sunday of Advent.  This is one of those times when I truly appreciate the three years in high school that I spent studying Latin, a "dead" language where punctuation was always optional (or so it seemed to an impatient teenager trying to decode Cicero, Horace and any of a number of long dead boring dudes).  

Advent, from the Latin adventus, means "arrival" or "coming".  So we spend the month after Thanksgiving waiting for the arrival of that most special baby, Jesus.  Many are the ways that Christians celebrate, or mark the days of, Advent: an Advent Wreath lighting ritual in church or the home; various Advent calendars, some of which reward you with a mini chocolate as you open the "window" for each day.  I enjoy a musical Advent calendar courtesy of Andre Rieu's website (how can you say no to free music downloads, concert tickets or other cool stuff!).

The common theme among all of these rituals or ceremonies is marking the passage of time.  Think about the Israelites for a moment.  They waited thousands of years for this special birth, this coming of their Messiah.  We only must count down four weeks, about 28 days, give or take, depending on how the church calendar lays out in any given year.  I would say that we get off easy, compared to the faithful children of Israel. 

Let's keep that in mind as we sit at our desks, antsy and impatient, waiting and DYING for the days to speed up so we can open gifts on Christmas.  

Let's focus on each day and consider ways that we can make this season of waiting more about caring for others.

Let's focus more on GIVING.  Two things will happen:

• The time will fly by (YAY, Christmas is finally here!!!)
• This time of year will become intensely more meaningful and joy-filled for you and those whose lives you will touch

Happy Advent!

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Have a wonderful day!