Re-View: Advent

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival" and the focus of the season is the celebration of the coming of the Lord Jesus - first as a baby in Bethlehem and second as returning King at the end of time.

So the spirit of advent is one of anticipation, expectation and joyful excitement at the plans and promises of God being realized in our fractured world.  The hope of the faithful people of God, after hundreds of years of longing that God would act in the world in a new way, was finally rewarded. God came so unexpectedly, so tangibly, so effectively that life would never be the same again.

It is the coming of God that we simultaneously remember and anticipate. It’s a celebration of the impossible becoming possible. In Luke 1:34 Mary’s very understandable question, “How will this be?” is answered by the angel’s bold assertion: “Nothing is impossible with God.”  

That is the hope of Advent. It is hope incarnated into flesh, hope we can touch, hope that can be held in a mother’s arms. It is the hope that springs from impossible and insignificant beginnings becoming a magnificent reality because it is infused with the power and presence of God through the Holy Spirit. We too, therefore, with Advent hope confidently expect the God of the impossible to act.