You’ve probably have already heard Bing Crosby or Andy Williams belt out “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” And truly it is the most wonderful time of the year. But with the commercialization and consumerism that crowds this season, it is important now more than ever for Christ followers to become emphatically clear why this is the most wonderful time of the year…
This time of year gives [us] an opportunity to reclaim this season and lean into the meaning and the message of Christ coming into the human predicament as part of the larger redemptive narrative of the gospel. This time of year, this season of the year, has been considered the Christmas season, but if we leap all the way to Christmas, which celebrates the manifestation of God in flesh in the world, we miss the anticipation, hope, and expectation of His coming into the world. Each of these things is where we derive the days and weeks leading up to Christmas in a season we call Advent. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, [providing us] to prepare to celebrate Christ’s birth. “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventis which means ‘coming’. This season gives us an opportunity to prepare, to remember, and to celebrate Christ’s first coming into the world while we live in the anticipation of His second coming on the Day of the Lord.
Christ’s first coming was in God’s plan before the foundation of the world was laid. It was spoken of by the prophets. God’s people, who lived 2 millennia ago, lived in anticipation of His coming. Now, you and I have the opportunity to celebrate it and look forward to His second coming.
I invite you to encounter the season and the Scriptures afresh and anew so that in the midst of the holiday fellowship, shopping, and times that we will serve the community, we keep Jesus as the center of it all. Don’t let your familiarity with this story cause you to miss the reality that our God’s movement in our lives can be often unexpected, unanticipated, and quite surprising. Yet however unexpected and unanticipated God’s movements may be, it is nevertheless part of His plan for our lives and the larger world…
That night, as the song says, the soul felt its worth. Let’s reacquaint ourselves and prepare to share with others why this is the most wonderful time of the year.
Jason Turner, Study on Advent, RightNow Media (edited)