Peace to Those on Whom His Favor Rests

The peace candle is the fourth candle lit on the Advent wreath.

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In one of the best loved of all Christmas Carols, Silent Night, we sing "Sleep in heavenly peace." We imagine our King of Kings and Lord of Lords being born on a quiet, peaceful evening accompanied by rejoicing from His parents and the angels and then the shepherds. Surely there must have been a sense of holiness about that evening. We can all imagine the peace of that moment, a moment heralding prophetic fulfillment regarding the coming Messiah.

But that baby, the incarnate Christ, did not come to bring peace. He tells us straight in Matthew 10:34, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

We hope for peace. We pray for peace. But there will be no true, complete, lasting peace until we are spending eternity in heaven with our God. Jesus wanted us to realize that in His definitive statement in Matthew.

There are occasional glimpses of peace in our lives, fleeting and few, but I think God gives us those small tastes of peace so that we do not lose hope and so that we remember that someday there will be peace on earth.

Even now, come Lord Jesus.

 

Joy to the World

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The joy candle is lit for the third Sunday in Advent. 

I would normally have had this post written and posted by Friday morning, but I got a bit behind. And as I contemplated how to write about joy, I was struck by the almost inappropriateness of discussing joy today. In light of yesterday's horrific events, it is difficult to blog about having a heart full of joy at the celebration of Christ's birth and joy in anticipating eternal life with Him.

But perhaps that is exactly why we need to think about joy. The world we live in is a sick and dying world filled at times with unimaginable sorrow. In order to keep ourselves from sinking into a deep hole of despair we must, no matter how difficult, continue to look for joy. In order to find joy we must look to Christ. He helps us to find sense in the senseless, meaning in the midst of confusion and joy despite the sorrow.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

Take Heart.

How Great is the Love the Father has Lavished on Us

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The second candle for the second week of Advent is the love candle. The word love is seriously over-used in the United States. We love pizza, we love our favorite movie, we love Christmas.

Love is intrinsically tied into Christmas celebrations. We presume Mary loved Jesus. We love people in our lives and want to buy them presents to show them love at Christmastime. We love Jesus. God loves us. There's a lot of lovin' going on, but do we actually comprehend the meaning of love? 

Love isn't only warm feelings and presents and caring and close relationships with others. True love, God love, is sacrificial. Sacrificial love isn't warm and fuzzy.  

Jesus loved us enough to leave heaven.

I wouldn't do that. 

Would you leave heaven and come live on earth?

God loved us enough to give up His Son to a horrible death. For people who don't deserve that kind of sacrifice, that kind of love.

Jesus was born to die. For us. Because that is true love. 

I Wait in Hope

There are no Five Minute Friday link ups this month, which means no word prompt. In lieu of that, the first four Fridays of December we'll explore Advent, since that provides a ready-made word to focus on each week. (I am apparently unable to write on Fridays if I'm not given a word.)

While doing a little Advent research (I couldn't remember the word associated with each candle in an Advent wreath for each week of Advent :) ), I saw Advent explained as a time of preparation for celebrating the birth or coming of Jesus.

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This seemed a little short sighted since the reason for Jesus' birth was so that He could die for us. That's what I'll be looking at; how each of these words focuses not just on Jesus the baby, but Jesus the Messiah.

The first candle of Advent is the hope candle. I also saw this explained as the candle of expectation. We wait in expectation for the celebration of  Jesus' birth, but in a larger sense we wait in hope and in the expectation for Jesus to return again.

He tells us in His word that He will come again, so the hope we feel is a hope steeped in assurance; a certain knowledge that our eternal life with Him, promised by His death and our salvation because of that death, is a hope that will be fulfilled.

So light the first candle in your Advent wreath and celebrate the hope of Christ's return.