A New Resource for Advent
“In a woman’s womb, the fulfillment of an ancient promise was gathering strength.”
I don't know about you, but it's hard for me to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. While it may sound cliché, it's true that time seems to pass faster with each year.
There's so much to love about Christmas. It's a season filled with beauty—the warm glow of Christmas lights, the beauty of decorated trees, and the cozy smells of cinnamon, pine, and wood fires. I eagerly anticipate gathering with family and friends over shared meals and seeing my nieces’ faces lit with the glow of all that Christmas brings.
However, if I'm being honest, despite enjoying so many aspects of the Christmas season, it always ends up feeling somewhat anticlimactic. All the anticipation, hustle, and bustle that builds up over weeks and weeks and all the energy poured into planning and preparing are over in less than twenty-four hours. Then, all that’s left is a lingering sense of dread as we face the tasks of cleaning, putting away the decorations, and returning to life as usual…until we do it all again next year.
There really is so much I love about Christmas. But sometimes, our experience of the Christmas season isn’t idyllic. Instead, it amplifies what is broken and hard in our lives. Loneliness. Strained relationships. Financial pressures. Broken families. An empty seat at the table. Stressful logistics. The first Christmas without a loved one. Sometimes, it serves as a haunting reminder that another year has gone by, and you are still unmarried or haven’t been able to have a child of your own.
But then, that’s precisely what makes Christ’s arrival good news! The groaning of life can also ignite the flames of gratitude as we turn our gaze to Christ, who represents both the fulfillment of an ancient promise and the eagerly anticipated realization of a promise we are still awaiting.
“During the season of Advent, we celebrate that our Savior’s first arrival pierced the darkness while acknowledging all the ways we still await the light that casts out all darkness forever.”
Last year, I had the opportunity to lead a group of women through an Advent study focusing on four ways we encounter Jesus in the book of John. Those weeks we spent together leading up to Christmas, cleared the holiday stupor from my eyes, enabled me to see Christ more clearly, and enriched my worship. Rather than Christmas being draped in the sentimentality of a baby born in a manger over two thousand years ago, it immersed me in a gripping and gritty narrative of what his arrival meant for me, for us, here and now!
I wanted to make it possible for more people to encounter Jesus and experience his care this Christmas, so I’ve created a new video-based Advent study called Encountering Jesus in John. The 4-week, self-paced study comes with 12 teaching videos and a 50-page workbook to guide you, and it can be done individually or with a group.
“Christ bridged the gap between creation and new creation with his outstretched body— allowing us safe passage out of this no man’s land haunted by the echoes of life and delivering us to the source and substance of life—Christ himself.”
However you find yourself in this season—whether full of anticipation and joy or overwhelmed and ready for the season to be over, excited about family and festivities, or feeling an impending sense of dread and loneliness—my prayer is that this study will clear away both the good distractions and the painful rubble so that you may have a meaningful encounter with Jesus this Christmas.
Will you join me?
Have you heard about Encountering Jesus in John—An Advent Study?
