Tied to Advent, the first part (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-2; John 3:16-17, 10:14-15)

Advent is a time of waiting. Advent is remembering the wait for Jesus’ incarnation and the wait we have now for his triumphant return. It is about waiting with exiled Israel for a philosopher king and the Judean diaspora for a conquering hero: a wonderful counsellor, a mighty God, an everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. It is about waiting with Mary and Joseph for a baby to be born. It is like waiting with Abraham for a promise to be fulfilled. Advent is us remembering these waits even as we eagerly await now Jesus’ ultimate return.

Waiting can sometimes be difficult. As anticipation of Jesus’ return – as we really believe he is coming back - builds with every passing day. I think this growing anticipation of each successive Christmas contributed to the German Protestants inventing Advent Calendars in the nineteenth century to help with the wait. Many times when our children were growing up, Susan has made daily advent devotions with different symbols and treats in stockings leading up to Christmas.

In The Salvation Army we often remember Christ and mark the time before Christmas by preparing food, gifts, meals, and raising funds and awareness for those in greatest need in our community while we wait for Jesus and wait to commemorate the Incarnation.

One of the ways that I like to mark the Advent Season is to pull out the ties that my girls have made for me almost every Christmas since Rebecca, my eldest, was born. Today I am going to share the stories of some of these ties with us here.

2001: this is my first tie. It has on it the footprint on my 9-month-old daughter and the words, “Merry Christmas love Rebeca”. 2002 and 2003 each have a second footprint added to the first; this one is of baby Sarah-Grace. The first tie given to me by my first begotten child reminds me how God the Father gave us His only begotten child to live, die and raise from the grave for each of us and how we are now eagerly awaiting his return, hopefully even more than I eagerly await my new ties.

2004, 2005, and an unknown year shown here each then have handprints of my daughters and 2006 is something entirely new. 2006, when my daughters were 5 and 4, they created me a Christmas Tree on the tie (with help from mom of course). This reminds me that God loves each of us so much that He made all of creation. Every tree, every plant, every animal, everything for us… to take care of and to name. And He did this with even more love than children making a gift for their dad.

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Salvogesis

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