Acts 17:11
Consider this
“The time that made Advent meaningful, that made the Incarnation come alive, is we had a family tradition where we viewed slides on an old technology called View-Master, and one of the slide sets was the Christmas story. There was this one picture of the wise men following the star, which covered the wall of the house that we were sitting in, and it was just amazing and mysterious…”
“A few weeks ago, a friend shared for KING & COUNTRY’s new music video ‘Little Drummer Boy’ with me. ‘It’s so beautiful,’ she wrote. ‘You will love it!’ If Little Drummer Boy is your favorite Christmas carol, I apologize for my initial lack of enthusiasm…”
“One of the things that makes Christianity so unique is that we know God. We have a relationship with our God in a way that just, you don't find anywhere else. He's our God. He came down through Jesus Christ, His son, and lived with us for a small time in history. But it was a connection that is so meaningful…”
What does the Incarnation mean to me? What does it mean that Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh and lived among us? I am not sure I have the language for a sufficient answer. Rather, let me borrow these words from the first verse of “O Holy Night.” O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Savior's birth, Long lay the world, in sin and error pining 'til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
“Having our first baby, we adopted three kids, but I just remember seeing Laura, our oldest one - being there, seeing her as a baby. And so the meaning of Incarnation … just my thought went to Jesus being born. And what did that mean to me? I became a father, and that gave me the chance to see the Father heart of God and bringing a baby into the world.”
“You'll have hymns at Christmas, like ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem',’ in which we hear about how silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming. But in this world of sin where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in…”
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1. At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith…
“One of the best parts about Advent is just the time that you get to spend on reflecting, why we need a savior and what Jesus gives to us and gives us hope. And a fun way and a really meaningful way for me is Silent Night when we get to turn off all the lights and just sit in the silence and hear the beautiful music…”
“When I was thinking about the Incarnation and a Christmas song that meant a lot to me, I was thinking back to when I was expecting our second daughter and she was due mid January and we knew she had Down syndrome and would need a major open heart surgery shortly after she was born. And I think the weightiness of that Christmas…”
“Advent was a time when you were aware that it's getting dark earlier. So the winter light is a low light and there's not as much of it. So you're aware of the light in the darkness, not just the light in the darkness. And I had this sense of it and I associated it with later on the excitements of Christmas…”
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1. At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith…
“The part that most intrigues me [about the Christmas story] is just Joseph's willingness to go along with this plan. He's engaged to this woman who ends up being pregnant and he doesn't want to shame her, he doesn't want to bring shame to her or to his family or her family. He plans to divorce her quietly. But then just having an angelic visitation come to him and say, ‘No, this is from the Lord’ …”
“So here I am, this little boy in Detroit, Michigan, looking up through the boughs of a Christmas tree and imagining these worlds of light and being captivated and transfixed by the wonder of it. And here I am beginning to enter as one of the little steps of grace into this relationship with the Father…”
“We sing quite a number of songs for Christmas, both in Uganda and here. One of the Christmas songs that stands out is “Joy to the World, the Savior Has Come…” Growing up as kids — first of all, I grew up in Uganda. To be specific, in the village where a majority of people treasured Christmas and look towards that day…”
