Glimpse #2 {This is How We Welcome}

Advent begins December 1st — the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Here’s another glimpse into these conversations intended to guide you through a season of active waiting and preparing for the coming of Christmas.

When did we start expecting instead of receiving, and buying instead of giving?

With the first bit of sin. That’s the moment.

That’s when we started wanting what we want, instead of what someone else wanted for us. Our will verses God’s. Our desires instead of His. We chose sin out of the hunger of our flesh, rather than the good and perfect gifts from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.

The moment we welcomed death, we began to struggle to know how to be givers and receivers of life.

But then came Christmas! Jesus, born into our sin, who leads the way in the generosity of grace.

Generosity isn’t about what we give. It’s about how we give.

And receiving isn’t about what we’re getting. It’s about how we welcome.

Christmas has always been about the giving and receiving of gifts. God giving his son. Jesus giving his life. A world receiving their Christ. A Savior receiving his broken people, and those people giving their life back to him.

Giving and receiving. These gifts of the heart, they are really one. Two inseparable gifts connected to the very heart of Christmas: Jesus, the Giver and Receiver of all things.

(Advent Thought #2)

 

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