You can feel it in the air and see it in the faces of people on the streets: Christmas is just days away!  And while there is certainly the excitement that comes with the holiday parties, the family gatherings, and the promise of gifts, there is something far deeper, more fundamental that excites us.  It is the anticipation of Christ’s birth, the expectation that soon – very soon – God Himself will be in the flesh among us. 

This message is clear in the fourth chapter of Pamela Hawkins’ book, Behold! Cultivating Attentiveness in the Season of Advent.  It is focused on how Advent is filled with God’s promise of salvation for this world that He created, and how that promise is based in the everlasting love that God has for us.  God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us, so much so that He came in the form of a tiny baby to be born among us, live with us, and offer us the salvation he has promised for generations. 

Let us take time in these last few days of Advent to remember God’s steadfast love for us. 

Cross: In the name and spirit of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Invitatory Bead: “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”  (Luke 1:54-55, NRSV)

1st Cruciform Bead: Loving God, we praise you for your steadfast love for us.

1st set of Week Beads: use each bead to praise God for His love for you and for others.

2nd Cruciform Bead: Yet, Lord, I have not always been open to receiving your love.

2nd set of Week Beads: use each bead to confess the times when you haven’t been willing to receive God’s gift of love for you, or have even rebuffed it.

3rd Cruciform Bead: Lord, help me to see the many ways in which you reveal your love to me.

3rd set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider the many ways in which God reveals His love to you.  Take the opportunity to consider the times when you may not even notice God’s love being revealed to you.

4th Cruciform Bead: Lord, help me to be a sign of your love to others.

4th set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider the ways in which you can serve as a sign of God’s love for others.

Invitatory Bead: recite The Lord’s Prayer

Cross: In the name and spirit of Jesus, we pray, Amen

Click here for more information about Behold! Cultivating Attentiveness in the Season of Advent.