There is a period of time in between the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas holiday that is often neglected by people. Outside of the church, no one really talks about it. But it is so important to the Church that the Church calendar has it as the beginning season. That is the Advent season, the four Sundays prior to Christmas. Advent is a Latin word and its root is “adventus” meaning coming. The four Sundays of the Advent season have four different themes, namely, hope, love, joy, and peace.
During the Advent season, one of the hymns we commonly sing is “O come O come Emmanuel”. This song describes the waiting and longing of the people for the coming King, the Messiah, and the Saviour. In the past, the Israelites were lost, taken captive, and in exile. They were desperate for the deliverance by the Son of God to come. Similarly in this 21st century, we are lost, taken captive by evil or in exile in this world. Advent season serves a perfect reminder of our need to wait for the coming King. There are two things we can do in preparation.
First, we can raise our hope in this Advent season because our God comforts us. (Isaiah 40: 1-2) No matter what kind of life situation you may be in, there is always hope. The Advent season reminds us that we do not need to bury our heads from the worries of our life. We should not let our daily worries weigh our heads and our eyes down. Instead, this Advent season reminds us that there is hope, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; we should look up and look forward. Even though problems will not go away in seconds when we look up, we are reminded to trust in his promises, that Jesus is with us in the chaos of our daily lives, in the ordinariness and even in the tragedies that daily life offers.
Secondly, we need to repent of our sins for our Saviour is coming. (Isaiah 40:3-5) The rough terrain and unlevel ground need to be straightened in order for the Saviour and King to come. We are not unfamiliar with such scenery: When some VIPs pass through the roads here in town, they usually have a few traffic police to prepare the way ahead and to clear the road for them. And we civilians need to drive aside and slow down our vehicles in order to let them go first. In the New Testament, John the Baptist serves as the pioneer and the voice in the wilderness, to make straight in the desert a highway for the Lord. In the same way, we need to prepare ourselves for the coming King, and every Advent is a chance for us to reflect on our lives before Christmas comes. Our lives are like a stretch of roads, perhaps full of potholes. The ruggedness of the terrain is like the many obvious and hidden sins in our lives, we need to level it. We need to repent of our sins. Christmas preparation is not so much a matter of going around buying Christmas gifts or rehearsing for the Christmas programmes rather, it is to set aside time to “level our rough terrain”.
In the process of advance Christmas preparation, do not forget to have your Advent preparation.